NTPC Men’s Congress Union president, INTUC State president and former Rajya Sabha member Rama ChandraKhuntia has urged the Central and State Governments for an earlydecision on running of the Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS),re-engagement of all contract labourers and resumption of constructionof a new thermal plant of 1,320 MW at Talcher soon.
The TTPS has been closed and thousands of workers have lost their jobsin March for several reasons, but ever since, there has been a hugeprotest against the sudden decision to shut down the plant, which has impacted the livelihood and economy of the local people adversely.
Consequently, thousands of workers are on a dharana before the NTPC management demanding running of the plant till a new plant is set up and made operational. “The NTPC has not taken the appropriate permission for closure of the plant and retrenchment of workers.
The plant retrenched 865 workers in February and closed the factory on March 22 and applied to the Government for permission only on April 1,” said Khuntia. He said while the Centre and State have been assuring to create jobs, here a Public Sector Unit has been closed and thousands were thrown jobless.
“On April 9, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra also discussed with the NTPC Chairman and it was known that both the Central Government and State Government agreed to start the third phase of the new plant and run the old units of TTPS.
But no specific notification has come out till today. This has created serious discontentment among the workers and the general public which may take the form of people’s movement in the State,” stated Khuntia.