The Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday asked the Centre to explore the possibilities of reviving the HMT Watches factory at Ranibagh in Nainital district.
Taking strong objection against the closure of the HMT factory, Justice Rajiv Sharma refused to grant permission for the modification of the earlier order, which on December 8 had stayed a central government notification for the closure of the 31-year-old factory rekindling hopes for its revival.
Justice Sharma also directed the HMT Company to pay the remaining wages and other benefits to the employees within two weeks time.
Pleading the case of the HMT workers, who had filed the petition, the counsel Kartikey Hari Gupta said the factory is being closed without proper adjudication of the dispute raised by the HMT workers. Moreover, the consultants appointed by the HMT factory never gave any report about the closure of the factory, Gupta told the Court.
For the past one year, nearly 165 employees of this factory have been staging a relay sit-in in front of the factory spread over an area of 99 acres. The factory began production in 1985 with the inauguration by late Rajiv Gandhi, who was the then Prime Minister. The initial investment at the time of production was Rs 45 crore. Over the years, the strength of the workers in the factory has been reduced to 165 from 1250 in the wake of the various VRS schemes and alleged retrenchments. All the production units in the factory had already been closed completely.
From time to time, the state government had made requests to the central government for the revival of the factory.