The
strike at Alang-Sosiya Ship-Recycling Yard in Bhavnagar was called off on Wednesday
after the BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Mansukh L Mandaviya and other regional
business bodies promised to ensure the Ship Recycling Industries Association’s
(SRIA) demands are met.
The shipbreakers
had in fact commenced upon their planned dharna at Bhavnagar’s Rupam Chowk in
the morning, but later met with Mandaviya and the heads of the Saurashtra and
Bhavnagar Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
“Mandaviya
and the Saurashtra and Bhavnagar chambers have promised us that they will
ensure our demands are met, so we have decided to call off the strike. Alang
will reopen from Thursday onwards,” said Nikhil Gupta, joint-secretary of the
SRIA, over phone from Bhavnagar.
The
SRIA had spearheaded an agitation against last week’s booking by police of
three colleagues under “culpable homicide” charges after six workers were
killed by an explosion and fire on-board a beached tank-ship 11 days ago.
Shipbreakers
had alleged the police was targeting them for complaining to Gandhinagar that
the police were not taking their complaints about rampant night-time thefts at
the yard seriously, a charge denied by police as a ploy to deviate attention
from the tragedy.
For
five days, business at Asia’s largest ship-recycling yard and allied businesses
such as the large flea market nearby, rolling mills, furnaces and the like, had
virtually halted, besides leaving tens of thousands of workers idle. The daily
turnover at Alang, which the shut down disrupted, is estimated at about Rs
25-30 crore.
The
tragedy on-board the tank-ship, a 163-metre-long vessel called MT Union Brave,
is likely to be on the agenda of a Steel Ministry-headed Inter-Ministerial
Committee (IMC) meeting scheduled to take place in Gandhinagar on Thursday. The
IMC members IMC are also scheduled to visit Alang on Friday.
Source: Indian Express. By Adam Halliday. 18
October 2012
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/alang-shipbreakers-end-strike-after-mp-s-promise/1018419/
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