No proposal to sell TANCEM unit in Alangulam: TN govt to HC

The Tamil Nadu government today informed Madras High Court bench here that there is no plan to
Sell or transfer its Alangulam cement manufacturing unit in Virudhunagar district, to the private sector.
The Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Cement Corporation Limited (TANCEM), C Kamaraj, in his counter filed before the court, stated that the factory could not be closed either without complying with the provisions of the Company Law or Labour law.
He was responding to a PIL filed by one K S Radhakrishnan, seeking to forebear the state government from selling the TANCEM unit at Alangulam.
Kamaraj stated that the PIL was misconceived, politically motivated and based on presumptions, which should be dismissed by the Court.

The unit, started in 1968, manufactured 1200 Metric tonnes and provided employment to 1700 persons directly and indirectly, he noted.

The petitioner had in 1986 filed a petition seeking to restrain cement manufacture in the factory without treating the smoke and without an effluent treatment plant, which was also complied with, he pointed out.
In fact, the Managing director of the factory was sending periodical proposal on the need to modernise the plant, which was pending for want of fund allocation.
No plan or decision had been taken by the board of directors to sell or transfer the unit to the private sector, Kamaraj said.

The PIL petitioner had moved the Court without any proof with regard to the proposal, he added.
The bench, comprising Justices S Nagamuhthu and N V Muralidharan recorded the submission of TANCEM and dismissed the PIL.