Questioning the rationale behind the Centre's proposal for establishment of defence corridors for handing over defence production to private sector, All India Defence Employees' Federation (AIDEF) and two other federations have decided to go on a three-day strike in protest against "deprivation of workload" for State-owned defence industries.

The AIDEF, Indian National Defence Workers Federation and Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, representing four lakh defence civilian employees working in the 41 ordnance factories, 52 DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) laboratories, Naval dockyards and workshops, and depots under Army, Navy and Airforce will go on strike from January 23 to 25, C. Srikumar, General Secretary of AIDEF, said.

By withdrawing 275 products being manufactured in the ordnance factories and classifying them as 'non-core', the Central Government had gone back on the commitments made by former Defence Ministers that the future of the State-owned factories will be safeguarded. Former Defence Ministers George Fernandez, Pranab Mukerjee, and A.K. Antony had given assurances that the work that could be done by the ordnance factories will not be privatised and that priority will be given to the State-owned factories for manufacture of new defence products, Mr. Srikumar said.

Even the former Defence Minister of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) Government Manohar Parikkar had given a commitment that the production target for ordnance factories will be increased to ₹ 20,000 crore during 2019-20. However, the present dispensation has reduced the workload to ₹ 11,700 crore for 2018-19 where as the ordnance factories had produced item work of ₹ 17,700 crore during the period. Also, the Government has taken a decision to close down many Army workshops during the current year.

It was unfortunate that the Central Government was dismantling the State-owned defence industries and was committed to establish Defence Corridors in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh under the premise of building an indigenous defence production eco system.

The three-day protest will also highlight the demands for scrapping the New Pension Scheme, Mr. Srikumar said.