Stir against move to close down Irrigation Corpn.

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, NOV. 23. The A.P. Public Sector Employees Federation has threatened to launch an agitation against the move to wind up the State Irrigation Development Corporation under the garb of reforms.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, the Federation chairman, Mr.M. Janardhan Reddy, and secretary general, Md.A. Rahaman Khan, cited a GO issued on November 15 for retrenchment of 549 employees of the corporation as a precursor for closure of the undertaking.

They said alredy 1,593 employees were eased out under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) and the latest spell of retrenchment would leave only 399 on its rolls. The Government had made it abundantly clear that the corporation was heading for an early closure.

Mr. Janardhan Reddy said a convention of the labour unions and Rytu Sanghams would be held in Hyderabad on November 30 to discuss the future course of action against the winding up of the corporation.

Mr. Janaki Ramaiah, the corporation employees union general secretary, said the corporation had on hand 168 lift irrigation schemes costing Rs 133 crores, while another 19 schemes costing Rs 43 crores are in the pipeline. A survey on 388 new lfit schemes involving an investment of Rs 478 crores was about to begin. At this juncture, downsizing the employees' strength was irrational and unjust.

Mr. Janardhan Reddy said the attack on the Public Sector Undertakings began in 1995 in the name of economic reforms. At the behest of the World Bank, so far 19 PSUs had been closed down and as many as 18,000 employees were sacked.

The schemes taken up by the corporation helped bring in an additional 7.25 lakh acres under irrigation, mostly in the arid areas. The Government is gradually withdrawing from the irrigation sector citing financial crunch. The transfer of the maintenance of the irrigation schemes to Water Users Associations in the last five years ended up as a bitter experience. Most of the schemes were in disuse as the WUAs were unable to maintain them, Mr.Reddy said.

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Section  : Southern States
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