E-Paper
LML vendors up in arms against mgmt
IT SEEMS that there is no end to LML crisis. After employees? unrest and subsequent closure of the factory, it?s now turn of the vendors to raise their voice against the management.
IT SEEMS that there is no end to LML crisis. After employees’ unrest and subsequent closure of the factory, it’s now turn of the vendors to raise their voice against the management.
More than 150 vendors, who were associated with the LML, have decided to become fourth party at Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).
The closure of factory has left these vendors in a lurch. The company also owes about Rs 70 to 80 crore to them and repeated attempts to reclaim their legitimate dues have failed.
The hapless vendors have approached the State Government to waive-off their loans in view of financial crisis faced by them and reluctance of the LML management to address their concern.
The vendors raised their issue of pending dues at a meeting held under the banner of Indian Industries Association (IIA). They also criticised the role of Union Government and dubbed BIFR as ‘a legal umbrella of big industrialists’.
The vendors made an appeal to the BIFR that if any financial assistance was given to LML for re-starting its unit by the State or Union Government then it must be ensured that the pending dues of vendors were cleared.
It was also decided on the occasion that the State Government would be requested to make available several concession forms like 3-B, 16-A and 16-C, which were denied to them by the LML management.
MC Agarwal, an LML vendor said: “After the closure of LML, vendors are facing severe financial crisis. Repeated attempts to claim their pending dues from the company have failed.”
IIA state president Tarun Khetrapal accused the LML management of deceiving vendors by keeping them in dark about the future prospects of the company.
He also accused the company management of selling the raw material, machinery and other parts of the company despite the lockout. “Initially when we objected to the sale, the company management had a perfect alibi and pointed out that scrap was being sold,” added Khetrapal.
But after due course to time it was clear that in gross violation of all laws, raw material and machinery was being sold by the company and not the scrap, asserted Khetrapal.
Replying to a query, IIA vice-president RK Agarwal, an LML vendor, said: “Vendors were kept in the dark by the LML management by repeatedly pointing out that a collaboration with a foreign firm was in the offing and within due course of time the company will re-start production.”
