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Privatisation evokes fear in Balco township

Widow Sajeda Faroque had been looking forward to her daughter's marriage next week but now there is a cloud over the festivities.

Faroque's family along with thousands of others in this sprawling industrial township in Chhattisgarh fear the future is looking uncertain after a government decision to privatise the area's main employer, aluminium-maker Balco.

Nine days ago, Balco's 7000 workers went on strike to protest against the sale of the firm, the country's first big-ticket privatisation in a decade of economic reform.

Despite repeated promises by Balco's new managing director S C Krishnan that "not even a single employee will be retrenched", the workers still say they are worried about what they call the "privatisation monster".

"The job has helped us to survive so far but I dread to think about the future," said the shy, soft-spoken Faroque who has two more daughters to look after besides the one getting married.

Faroque, 48, has been working as a clerk at the plant in Korba district in Chhattisgarh since 1983.

She lives in a sparsely furnished company-provided two-room house in the dusty township that is criss-crossed with railway tracks for trains ferrying coal to the plant.

There are about 5000 houses such in varying hues of red, yellow and grey maintained by Balco, which provides dwellings with uninterrupted electricity and water.

Faroque now fears that she could lose both her job and her house once the new owners, metals company Sterlite Industries, start modernising the plant.

Union leaders have been fanning the workers' fears.

They have been delivering fiery speeches through giant loudspeakers at the local market, drowning out the cries of vendors, warning that privatisation will lead to job losses.

"I am not even looking forward to my marriage festivities," said Faroque's 19-year-old daughter Fatima.

Sterlite has vowed to turn the plant which produces about 15 per cent of the country's aluminium output into a world-class facility.

Balco runs a 200,000-tonnes-a-year alumina plant, a 100,000 tonnes aluminium smelter and a 40,000-tonnes hot-and-cold rolling mill at the plant which was built in 1965 using technology from the former Soviet Union and Hungary.

OPPOSE PRIVATISATION

Locals say it is the fear of being uprooted from their sheltered existence, which has made them oppose privatisation.

"We have been living in this house since I was born here 22 year ago. If my father is retrenched, we will have to go back to our village," said Roopesh Sahu, a youth who shares a two-room company house with his two brothers, a ister and parents.

Unions say thousands of other workers employed by state-run firms across the country have similar worries about job security as the government moves into high gear to accelerate privatisation, the cornerstone of its economic liberalisation programme.

Some 27 more state-run firms are up for sale and the government says it will aggressively pursue the sell-offs to raise resources to pay off the country's big debts and improve education and health facilities.

The strike is being backed by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi who has demanded that Balco be returned to state hands.

But not all workers oppose BALCO's sale. They say the plant was old and needed a fresh lease on life.

"Privatisation is necessary in view of the plant's state," said Krishna Kant Tiwari who has worked as a Balco administrative official for 17 years. "There's definitely excess manpower. This has reduced profitability of the plant."

Some younger people spy an opportunity in Balco's privatisation.

"They (the older generation) is scared they will lose their jobs. Privatisation will at least bring in accountability and those who are unfit will have to go," said 21-year-old commerce student Roopesh Kumar Singh.

"They (the new management) will do something to increase profitability which would open up opportunities for us," he said.

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