Kerala - Kochi   

Plan for new pesticide plant at HIL

Staff Reporter

Ramvilas Paswan inaugurates HIL golden jubilee celebrations

CELEBRATION TIME: Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ram Vilas Paswan inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of Hindustan Insecticides Limited in the city on Wednesday. - Photo: Vipinchandran

KOCHI: Hindustan Insecticides Limited's (HIL) Udyogamandal unit is looking to new areas of growth and to add to its product line for sustainable growth, according to Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ram Vilas Paswan.

Inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of HIL on Wednesday, he said a new pesticide plant was proposed in this connection and pointed to the possibilities held out by bio-pesticides.

The Minister reiterated that he would be the last person to go in for anything that would hurt the interest of the workers. In fact, during his term as the Minister for Fertilizers several public sector fertilizer units, including the ones at Haldia, Namrup and Ramagunadam, had been revived, he said.

Revival packages had been approved for several big public sector undertakings. Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) had received a package of Rs.670 crore, Hindustan Organic Chemicals (HOCL) had been sanctioned a package of Rs.250 crore and HIL had been given a package of Rs.220 crore.

The Union Minister appealed to the employees to compare themselves with the best players in the field and understand the strengths and weaknesses of their company to perform better.

Mr. Paswan said several issues affecting the pharmaceuticals, chemicals and fertilizer sectors were being considered by the Group of Ministers.

Reward for employees

Mr. Paswan announced a Rs.1,000-award to each of the HIL employees to mark the golden jubilee. The announcement, along with several assurances by the Union Minister, was received with several rounds of applause by a large gathering of the employees and their family members.

Mr. Paswan said the achievements of a company should not be measured only in terms of profit. It should be measured on the basis of the contributions it had made to society. "I am glad that HIL has done reasonably well in both fronts," he said. The company had helped improve the health of the people as well as increase agricultural production. He pointed out that he was happy with the progress made by HIL over the years. The company had been able to achieve record turnover in the first year itself. He also noted that HIL had bagged safety award in the category of chemical companies and these achievements would not have been possible without the support of one and all of the HIL employees.

The Minister said that HIL should make use of its idle assets and requested the State Government to help change the land use pattern of HIL so that investment by HIL could be increased in the State.

HIL Chairman and Managing Director K. Harikumar welcomed the gathering. S. Sarma, Minister for Fisheries; K. Chandran Pillai, MP., A.M. Yousef, MLA., and C.P. Usha, president of the Eloor panchayat, offered felicitations. Satwant Reddy, Secretary, delivered the keynote address. K.C. Misra, Joint-Secretary; K.N. Gopinath, president of the HIL Employees Union; K.P. Haridas, HIL Workers' Union; N. Nagaresh, HIL Employees' Organisation and N. K. Vasudevan, joint-secretary, HIL Officers' Association, were among those who spoke. K.R. Venugopala Pillai proposed a vote of thanks.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Plan for new pesticide plant at HIL
Milma to open dairy at Kattappana
Gouri calls for new farm reform movement
Campaign to promote khadi launched
Cochin Ad Club's award function today
Kalpavriksha awards
Camp ends
Around the City
In Kochi Today

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu