By Our Correspondent
SUKINDA/JAJPUR/BHUBANESWAR: The Pramod Mittal owned Balasore Alloys Limited; formerly Ispat Alloys Limited is part of the renowned Ispat group of Companies, a major business house in the country, promoted by the Mittals, seems keeping a blind eye to the genuine demands of hundreds of workers working at the company owned chromites mining blocks under Sukinda valley in Odisha’s Jajpur.
Pramod Mittal is brother of Laxmi Mittal, who runs AMNS and has owned two major iron ore blocks under Joda-Koira mining circles of State’s mineral rich Sundargarh and Keonjhar districts.Hundreds of workers under banner Sukinda Region Chromite Khadan Majdoor Sangha on Wednesday served an ultimatum to company authorities to clear their salaries of last 7 months with LTA, medical and other expenses.
Sources said, on October 22, Central Zone Labour Commissioner had held a meeting with SRCKMS founder and former Minister Prafulla Ghadai , Secretary Narayan Chandra Dhir and officials of Balasore Alloys Limited but nothing has happened. Sources said the company has not deposited the EPF of employees. Workers alleged that the company has stock of chromites more than 20,000 tonnes at mines stocks.Workers urged DDM, Collector , SP and Labour Commissoner to take necessary action against the company so that they would get their pending salaries of 7 months. Local BJD MLA Priti Ranjan Ghadai and BJD Youth State general secretary Partha Sarathi Muduli have urged the intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Balasore Alloys was incorporated in the year 1984 at Balasore, Odisha and at present it has two plants with total capacity of 160,000 MTPA. With multiple furnaces of different capacities, the company has the flexibility to produce different grades of Ferro Chrome as per market dynamics. This adds to the competitive advantage of the organization as a range product mix can be maintained at the same time even with lower quantity requirements.
The company has captive mines in different locations in Sukinda Valley at Jajpur Road (Odisha).The mines take care of the Chrome ore requirement of the company. BAL is one of the few Ferro Alloys manufacturing companies in the country having captive mines and this is a major competitive advantage since availability of Chrome ore is very uncertain and the price is volatile. Other raw materials are sourced from both Domestic and International Markets. The products of the company enjoy international reputation.
