In the scorching heat of 43 degree Celsius, the bereaved family members of late Mahanta Karua are continuing their dharna in front of the main gate of Tata Sponge factory by the side of NH-520 under Joda block.
Though the dharna reached its 5th day on Monday but the officials of Tata Sponge continued to be callous. However , the local administration has warned the Tata Sponge management not to make further delay in addressing the genuine grievances of the bereaved family.
Joda police station IIC Manoj Kumar Rout came to the dharna place and talked to the agitators. Sources revealed that IIC Rout had also called Soubhagya Patnaik, HR head of the company, to the spot and wanted to know from him the view of the company on the matter. Before this Khirod Chandra Behera,Tehsildar, Barbil who is also the Executive Magistrate had also talked to the striking people to know about their grievances.
Sources said that after the mysterious death of Mohanty Karua a permanent employee of Tata Sponge on August 6, 2004, the Tata management had tried to suppress the matter in fear of public outcry by assuring Bilashi Karua , widow of late Mohanty to provide a permanent services to her son and give all the compensation and requested her not to highlight the matter and make it a legal issue.
Accordingly, Deepak Karua ,son of late Mohanty was given job in the Raw Materials Department of the company but after working of about three years, the company retrenched him from services. After this, Bilashi had approached the then management many times, but nobody was there to listen to her miseries.