Leading integrated ferro alloys producer Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA) has restarted operations of its Therubali unit in Odisha’s Rayagada district.
The unit was dogged by a shutdown since April 23 after a group of outsiders stalled operations by gheraoing the plant premises and obstructing entry of workers to the site. In a regulatory filing, IMFA informed the BSE that the impasse that stretched to 18 days was finally resolved with the intervention of the district administration. The agitation has been called off.
Earlier, Union minister for petroleum & natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan had sought the intervention of the doyen of Indian industry and Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata to accost the Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik and prevail upon the latter to defuse the crisis. Pradhan felt that the stalemate in IMFA was sending negative signals about Odisha’s industrial story and was to the detriment of about 1500 workers dependent on the Therubali unit for their livelihoods.
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci) had written to the chief minister, seeking his intervention to end the row.
In a separate development, IMFA has got a temporary relief from the tribunal under Union mines ministry on the demand notices clamped by the Odisha government on its chromite operations at Sukinda, Chingudipal, Nuasahi and Bangur. The demand notices amounting to Rs 122.90 crore have been stayed by the Revision Authority under the Mines ministry. Till the next date of the tribunal’s hearing, the Odisha government has been asked not to take coercive measures to exact compensation from the mines.
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