KOCHI
The HMT Employees’ Union (CITU) has demanded that the State government pay the price of the company land to be acquired for the proposed Kerala High Court building to the HMT unit itself.
The demand was raised on Saturday after a team led by Industries Minister P. Rajeeve visited the site for the proposed High Court building. The union maintained that the government had allotted 100 acres to HMT Machine Tools for its use, while a total of 300 acres were acquired in 1998-99 for establishing the Kinfra Park and the Medical College. However, these assets have not been transferred to the HMT Machine Tools unit as its ownership then rested with the Bengaluru-based HMT Limited. However, HMT Machine Tools was later hived off and is an independent entity now.
HMT Machine Tools has not received any money from the sale of 70 acres to developer HDIL for ₹91 crore in 2006. Nor has it received money from the sale of three acres to the NIA for ₹8.25 crore. Though the employees insisted on getting a share of the money for the machine tools unit, promises in this regard were not kept, the union claimed in a statement here. HMT Limited, Bengaluru, has received a total of ₹99.25 crore in land deals.
The union claimed that at least ₹450 crore could be realised from the proposed sale of 27 acres. If the money is made available to the Kalamassery unit, it will go into reviving the fortunes of the unit and help revive industrial activities in the area.
The HMT unit once employed 3,500 workers in three shifts. But there are just 130 employees on the rolls now, and 250 are on contract. Their salaries have not been revised since 1997, the union said.
Mr. Rajeeve along with High Court judges Mohammed Mushtaq, Bechu Kurian Thomas, Raja Vijayaraghavan, and Sathish Ninan visited the site proposed for the judicial city on Saturday. “It is a 50-acre area under HMT, but HMT has complete ownership over 27 acres, and the Centre’s permission will be required to acquire the remaining 23 acres,” a release quoted Mr. Rajeeve as saying.
District Collector N.S.K. Umesh and other officials accompanied the Minister and the judges. The proposal is to have a modern facility which is accessible to all, the release added. Apart from the High Court with 60 court rooms, the complex will have a mediation centre and a judicial academy.
