CITU leader for govt. takeover of HMT Kalamassery unit

The Kerala government shall acquire the Kalamassery unit of the Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), which has been under severe financial distress for long, Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) national vice president K. Chandran Pillai has said.

Mr. Pillai proposed the possibility of transforming the company into a major industrial training facility if such a takeover happens. He was addressing the media at Kalamassery, along with leaders of HMT Employees Union (CITU), on the plight of the employees of the company and the alleged delay in implementing a package promised by Union Minister for Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy to revive the cash-strapped enterprise.

Asked if the State government could not do anything to revive HMT, Mr. Pillai pointed to the instances of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) acquiring loss-making public sector undertakings, including Hindustan Newsprint Limited, and reviving them.

The LDF government has intervened in certain situations where some Central PSUs were in trouble. When it comes to HMT, the Centre does not have any such plan. The State government may take an initiative to take over that enterprise, Mr. Pillai said.

“If the government makes such an adventurous intervention or a proposal, the trade unions will support it,” he said.

Earlier, the HMT Employees Union (CITU) had made a similar demand in a memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan during his Navakerala Sadas outreach programme, union secretary P. Krishnadas said. In January, Industries Minister P. Rajeeve had said that the State government would take a decision if the Centre was ready to hand over the unit to it.

The trade union leaders reiterated their demand to use the money gained from selling the company’s land in Kalamassery for the revival of the State unit. They also demanded an immediate pay revision and recruitment of adequate employees.