People's Democracy

         Steel Workers To Highlight Problems & Prospects

THE CITU-affiliated Steel Workers’ Federation of India (SWFI) will submit a memorandum to the steel minister of the union government on the problems and prospects of the steel industry.  This was decided upon at a meeting of the SWFI working committee held in Kolkata over May 31-June 1. All-India president of the CITU, Dr M K Pandhe was present at the meeting.

The meeting has decided that the memorandum would also include a proposal to revive the IISCO. The memorandum would call upon the union government to move away from the penchant shown by the previous government for privatisation. It would also call for an increase in the production of the iron and coal mines for the sake of the steel industry.

The CITU representatives would highlight the problems plaguing the steel industry at the national-level Joint Consultative Committee to be held on June 10 and 11. Dr Pandhe later said that fresh demands would be placed in view of the removal of the BJP government and the coming to office of new governance. A joint movement of workers is being contemplated over the demands of the steel workers.

The BIFR has given the green signal for the revival of the important steel factories of Bengal.  Yet, the issue has been allowed to hang fire for the past six months.  Dr Pandhe said that the clear-cut stand of the CITU was that the IISCO must not either be privatised or sold off. With the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) earning profits as of now, it is expected that additional investments must be made for the IISCO. More investments must be made in the Durgapur Alloy Steel plant and the Salem Steel Plant must not be sold off.

The memorandum would also focus on the economic demands of the workers and employees. With the steel market reviving – and one of the reasons being the increasing import of Indian steel by China for construction work – it is expected that the new government would look to the economic demands early.  SAIL, Dr Pandhe reminded the union government, was making profits and there should be more investments made in the steel industry.

The SWFI leader is of the opinion that if the new government cared to enhance the country’ infrastructure, the demand for steel would go up. Citing the example of China, Dr Pandhe said that that China produced 200 million ton of steel annually and yet could not meet the domestic demand in full, and had to resort to imports.  India, on the other hand, produced just 30 million ton of steel and some of it was exported to other countries.  India at present imports 35 million ton of steel.

The SAIL has plans to increase steel production three-fold. To make this a successful move, said Dr Pandhe, India needed to ensure that the iron minefields increased production suitably. The leasing out system must be done away with.  Unless there is an increase in iron ore, there cannot possibly be a boost to the steel industry. And not just iron, emphasised Dr Pandhe, there must necessarily be an increase in the extraction of coal as well.

Explaining the situation, Dr Pandhe said that the SAIL lost the chance to have a profit worth Rs 400 crore because it depended on costly imports of the ‘low ash’ variety. The price of Indian coal is pegged at between Rs 2200 and Rs 2900 per ton.  The price of imported coal is priced at no less than Rs 4590 per ton.  If necessary, one could always import ‘low ash’ coal and produce coal that was best suited for furnaces, opined the SWFI leadership. (INN)