Accusing the Central Government of turning a deaf ear to their long-pending demands, employees of the HMT factory, Ranibag, Haldwani, continued their agitation on Tuesday, demanding the Government to revoke its decision to close the public sector unit down. The stir has been going on for the past 34 days.
"The management of the HMT company had set a deadline to have it closed down by March 31, 2014. However, we have managed to keep things continuing here till the final day of this financial year," said NR Arya, convener of the HMT Sangharshsheel Morcha, while addressing the agitating employees on Tuesday. He said their stir would drag on till their demands were met.
Among the agitating employees' main demands are immediate revival of the said factory and release of their outstanding salaries pending since April 2014. Another demand is restoration of power supply to the unit that was cut off long time back. There are 523 employees presently. Some of the members who took part in the agitation on the 34th day of agitation on Tuesday included KS Jeena, SS Bhandari, SC Kandpal, KC Joshi and Bisht.