Jajpur Road: Visa Steel Monday declared closure of its steel unit at Dubri in Odisha’s Jajpur district.
Visambhar Saran
“Visa Steel has declared closure today”, said company senior vice president Ranjan Mishra. “The company was forced to declare closure as the local MLA forcibly stopped raw material supply to our plant”, said Mishra.
The blast furnace, steel melt shop (SMS), rolling mill, DRI and Ferro chrome plant have been shut down due to shortage of iron ore and chromites. Despite permission to have 5500 MT iron ore and 3700 MT chromites, it could not be transported to the plant due to the blockade set up by the ruling party workers.
Visal Agarwal
The company had earlier shut the units temporarily citing shortage of raw materials and cease work notice furnished to the workers. Following the directive, over 1500 workers including employees have sat on a dharna on Biju Patnaik Marg.
The BJD workers under the leadership of local MLA, Priti Ranjan Ghadei, and workers affiliated to Kalinga Nagar Labour Union have stopped supply of raw material to the plant for last few days. The steel units were closed in phases in the past few days with tapering of raw material stocks.
The closure declaration by the Visa Steel company would directly and indirectly affect more than 5000 workers engaged in the plant.
