S. W. F. I. on the Convention to Save Mines in the Steel Industry
Composed By: Sankar Pal
Conservation of Mines and Life and Livelihood of Miners. The covid pandemic coupled with neoliberalism has multiplied the plight of miners and miners. The Modi-led BJP government has demonstrated a "loyalty to the king" attitude towards the dictated by the International Financial Institutions, with a commitment to neoliberalism. The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy estimates that over 2 crore people lost their livelihoods in April 2021. More than 23 crore people are pushed below the minimum wage income Major changes are being made to labor laws to facilitate the process of reducing wages/employment costs to maximize profits.
The plight of workers in all sectors, with loss of employment, income and social security, has pushed workers into destitution. The public sector steel industry is under attack. The NDA government announced privatization under various names like "expression of interest" and "strategic sale" etc. ASP (Alloy Steels Plant), SSP (Salem Steel Plant) and VISL have been fighting privatization at this stage since 2016.
BJP government has announced the process of handing over RINL (Vizag) to POSCO. SWFI has been fighting privatization and disinvestment in SAIL and RINL since 1990. Iron ore is the main raw material required first. There was a well-established raw materials department to handle everything related to iron ore. RMD was created to meet the demand and maintain supply of iron ore. But the RMD has been dissolved to privatize all iron ore mines and earlier the RSS-led central government had amended the Mines and Minerals (Development and Control) Act 1957 to facilitate iron ore looting.
This amendment also applies to coal mining. Pre-mining laws are more violated than implemented like labor laws. Moreover, it is very difficult to maintain environmental balance during mining.
Meghatuburu mine tender is pending. The ore reserves in the present mining area of Meghatuburu are almost exhausted. Formalities regarding approval from Forest and other State Government Departments for unexplored areas including ore reserves in adjoining areas are not being followed by SAIL authorities. This whole episode is indicative of its intention to shut down mining operations as a prelude to its privatisation. Private organizations are not interested in following the rules to save the surrounding forests. Corporates in collusion with mafias are involved in illegal mining.
At this point when more control was needed to save the mine, it's surrounding people and nature; The corporate-friendly government has marketed all iron ore mines. Once the mines are privatized there will be no need to privatize the steel plants separately. Procuring iron ore from the market to produce steel will not be viable for steel mills. Vizag steel plant is suffering as they have no captive mines. condition of miners; Most are contractual in nature; Deterioration is that even the minimum wage is not guaranteed. Recruitment is much less than required.
A convention was held on behalf of SWFI to develop a concrete vision to save mines, representatives from various mines units of SAIL participated in the discussion. The convention was held at Jawaharlal Nehru Recreation Centre.Lalit Mohan Mishra, general secretary of the organization, gave a welcome address at the beginning of the convention. Laxman Munda, vice president and MLA, CITU, Jharkhand, spoke. Representative of Vizag Steel spoke at the convention. Mukesh Kumar spoke from Kiribaru. Jagannath So from Bolani Mines spoke. Biswaroop Banerjee spoke on behalf of SWFI in the second session.
Nabendu Sarkar read the proposal about NJCS, Woman to Chatterjee supported the proposal. Guruprasad Bandyopadhyay spoke on behalf of the Presidium. Lalit Mishra, General Secretary of the Federation, gave the closing speech on behalf of SWFI.
Kali Sanyal proposed the name of Mines Coordination Committee. Biman Maiti supported the proposal of the name of the committee. CITU general secretary Tapan Sen spoke wishing the success of the convention.
Jobless young candidates should be given priority in the recruitment process. Livelihoods of miners in the new context of liberalized mining. The Convention of Mineworkers adopted a resolution to reject the policy of mine privatization. Constant agitation-struggle and to save the lives and livelihood of the miners.
