Pawar backs Bajaj union

The impasse over the shutdown of the Akurdi plant by Bajaj Auto has taken a curious turn as the agriculture minister Sharad Pawar expressed his support to the company's workers in their struggle against the shut down decision.

Pawar who met the representatives of the firm as well as the workers' unions on Wednesday told the media that he has made his stand clear to both.

The local representatives of the Nationalist Congres Party had sought Pawar's intervention in the issue as the Akurdi plant and the area where most workers reside fall within the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency which Pawar represents.

Commenting that the company's reasoning behind the plant closure as "unacceptable", Pawar said the company should have taken the unions and the official machinery like the labour commissioner before announcing closure of the plant.

Rubbishing the company's claim over the high rates of octroi levied by the local municipal corporation, Pawar stressed that the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is the only civic body to have reduced octroi which now stands at 1.69 per cent.

PCMC commissioner Dilip Band had earlier pointed out that the company never approached his office with the issue.

On the concerns over how long the company will continue paying five and a half days' wages without any work done, Pawar said it would be unfair for the company to bring to this stage the workers who raised the plant to its present glory.

A high level meeting to discuss the issue has been convened on Saturday (September 8) at Sahyadri State Guest House in Mumbai when the representatives of both sides as well as Maharashtra labour minister Ganesh Naik along with senior bureaucrats will be present, Pawar said.

He hoped that the Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj and managing director Rajiv Bajaj will attend the meeting themselves, instead of deputing officials not empowered to make any commitments.