Pimpri Chinchwad: The
Hindustan Antibiotics Mazdoor Sangh has demanded that the Union government decide about a public-private partnership for Hindustan Antibiotics Limited.
General secretary
Sunil Pataskar said the government should also release money for payment of salaries for 20 months to the 1,100-odd employees. A delegation is now in New Delhi to meet ministers.
"The employees are facing severe hardships. We want the Centre to release this amount immediately.
Three months ago, it had formed a three-member cabinet committee, comprising
Arun Jaitley, Anant Kumar and
Nitin Gadkari to decided about running the company on a
PPP basis or through the central government."
Pataskar said, "The total arrears of salaries and other benefits is around Rs 120 crore and the amount will go on increasing as the days pass."
The delegation included former general secretaries
Arun Borhade and
Rajendra Jadhav, officers association representatives
Kailas Narote and
Milind Kamat, president of HAMS and
Maval MP
Shrirang Barne who is also the president of HAMS.
In April, the state government promised an
HAL delegation that he would take up the issue of reviving the company with the Centre. The HAL management had written to the state government on March 28, requesting financial assistance of Rs44 crore to restart production.
The company was declared sick and referred to the
Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in 1997. It received funds worth Rs132 crore after 10 years. The revival package proposal was submitted five years later. Officials claimed that if the package was approved, new plants would be set up and a voluntary retirement scheme would be introduced for 500 employees.
Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd in Pimpri is the first PSU that started manufacturing penicillin in the country.