Hit by lockdown, people displaced by BSL demand jobs

Bokaro: People displaced by the Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) and other protesters hit the streets on Tuesday, demanding jobs. The district administration has imposed Section 144 of CrPC till June 30 to prevent further escalation of tension. The Electrosteel Steel Limited (ESL) is also facing similar protests from its workers allegedly retrenched by the company.
The incident happened when the administration is putting focus to employ over 13,000 migrant workers who have returned to the district due to the lockdown.
On Tuesday, the BSL management deployed a large number of security personnel at the residence of its executive director (personnel and administration, Mukul Prasad in Sector-4 here as protesters under the banner of Bokaro Mrit Karamchari Sangh threatened to gherao it demanding jobs. The protesters were sons of BSL employees who lost their lives while working in the plant.
BSL chief of communications, Manikant Dhan, said, “We are holding negotiations with the agitators who had planned the protest. However, no protest occurred at the residence of the executive director.”
Neeraj Choubey, who is leading the agitation against BSL, said, “We assembled at the Majdoor Ground in Sector-4 to gherao the executive director’s residence. We are demanding jobs to 500 youths whose fathers died during work at the plant. But BSL officials stopped us promising to hold negotiation talk on June 16.”
Earlier on Monday, several displaced workers under the banner of Jharkhand Navnirman Sena (JNS) staged a dharna at Gandhi Chowk in Sector-4. JNS chief Gulab Chandra said, “The BSL management has to provide jobs to 20,000 displaced people on whose land the plant is set up. The displaced persons, who used to work in other states, have now returned because of the lockdown. BSL should give employment to them or return their unused land.”
Contract workers of ESL, who were allegedly retrenched, have also protested. Recently, JMM leader Vijay Rajwar and former labour minister Umakant Rajak of Ajsu-P met DC Mukesh Kumar, seeking his help to reinstate around 700 ESL workers. ESL had, however, clarified in April that it has not retrenched anyone but asked them to stay home because the plant has stopped production because of the lockdown.
Kumar had met with ESL management on June 13 to take stock of the situation. He said, “ESL officials told me that no worker will be removed from their jobs during the lockdown. They said wages for 15 days in April and 12 days in May were paid to the workers who were told to stay at home. No regular worker has been sacked. I have instructed the labour superintendent to keep a constant watch.”
A senior ESL officer, S Venkatraman, informed the DC that a total of 5,773 contract workers were employed before the lockdown, out of whom 2,288 were asked to stay at home. “Many workers have rejoined. At present, 5,144 contract workers are back and the remaining 629 will be asked to rejoin by July end,” he added.