Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president (HPCC) and former Member of Parliament Dr Ashok Tanwar on Wednesday said that his party would not allow the closure of Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) in Panchkula. Paying floral tributes to former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on his 130th birth anniversary here, Dr Tanwar said
"Pandit Nehru called these projects as temples of new India. The big projects like Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) were created to make India self-reliant and also provide jobs to lakhs of people," he said, while expressing concern that the BJP government has decided to close HMT, one of "Navratnas" of the new India. "This factory became famous world-over for making tractors and machine tools and more than 60,000 people had direct employment and lakhs of people had indirect employment due to this big factory," he said.
He said that now Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar led BJP government has decided to develop apple market at the spot of the HMT. He said that the apple market has seasonal significance. Dr Tanwar criticized the Haryana government for not conceiving any plan to provide alternative jobs to the workers losing their jobs on account of the closure of HMT factory.
In Panchkula where the HMT factory is located, Dr Tanwar extended his support to the HMT employees who lost their jobs. He said that the BJP by closing factories has encouraged the "establishment of Pakora and corruption avenues." Reiterating that if the HMT factory were closed, the Congress party after six months of coming to power at the Centre under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, would revive the HMT factory.