Hartal at Kanjikode on Oct 8

The Save Kanjikode Industrial Forum (SKIF), a combination of trade unions representing workers employed in the Kanjikode industrial area of Palakkad, has given a one-day hartal call on October 8 to protest 'the indifferent attitude' of the Kerala government.

The state government is alleged to have led to the closure of around 36 big and medium units, and 150 small units in the area.

SKIF convenor S B Raju said the objective of the hartal was to seek state government intervention to resolve the problems resulting from the closure of the 186 units over the last 10 years, which in turn has rendered around 11,000 people jobless.

According to SKIF, the hartal follows the state government not taking any steps to either avert these closures or to reopen the units.

Unless the government intervenes and takes corrective measures more such units will close down and more people will lose their jobs, he added.

Claiming that almost all workers in the existing 313 units will stay away from work to express their solidarity with the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Rajendran, the spokesperson of the union, said on that day dharnas would be conducted in front of big units.

"If there is no favourable response from the state government in the future, the SKIF leaders would resort to indefinite fast," he added.

The Kanjikode industrial zone, spread over an area of 750 acre in the Palakkad district, is the second largest industrial zone in Kerala after Aluva in Kochi.

The Kanjikode Industrial Forum spokesperson said: "Here most of the units have closed down not because of any labour problems but because of lack of appropriate infrastructure, state government apathy and hurdles created by the bureaucracy as well as due to mismanagement of some units by their promoters."

Some of the major units that have closed down include the Chittoor Sugar Mills, Tatafone unit, Madras Spinners, Supreme Textiles, Silicon Metallurgical Ltd and Balaji Spinners, among others.