New Delhi
The government on Friday said it is planning to shut down the operation of state-owned Hindustan Insecticides Ltd’s two plants located in Kerala and Punjab due to losses incurred for the last several years.
Minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Bhagwanth Khuba said this in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
He also said that the government is aware of the reports that the salaries of employees have not been disbursed for the last five months.
To address this, the government has proposed the closure of the two units of Hindustan Insecticides Ltd ---- in Bathinda and Udyogamandal in Kerala --- he said.
“Accordingly, a proposal seeking funds from the government has been made to cater to meet the expenditure arising on account of VRS/VSS and payment of balance dues of the employees of both units proposed for closure,” he added.
Khuba further said the two plants in Kerala and Punjab are “incurring losses for the last several years” and are “unviable” to be operated due to various reasons.
The Bathinda plant is an agrochemical formulation unit for solid and liquid pesticides. The minister said the technical grade of pesticides are transported from the company’s Maharashtra and Kerala plants and formulated in Punjab, which makes the overall proposition “unviable”.
{{/usCountry}}The Bathinda plant is an agrochemical formulation unit for solid and liquid pesticides. The minister said the technical grade of pesticides are transported from the company’s Maharashtra and Kerala plants and formulated in Punjab, which makes the overall proposition “unviable”.
{{/usCountry}}The Punjab plant is also “suffering losses” due to low automation, manual packing, excess manpower and non-availability of raw materials, he said.