Sick Mining Psu Turns Corner

The public sector Mineral Expl- oration Corporation Ltd (ME-CL), which till some time ago was unable to pay salaries to its staff, has turned the corner and hopes to end this year without a loss.

At a press conference here yesterday, MECL chairman and managing director S D Prasad said the company, which had grabbed headlines for scandals like fake medical reimbursement bills, now has a professional and commercial approach.

Prasad said the companys record of the employees union dictating management decisions and officials sitting idle at its Nagpur headquarters while work suffered in the field, was true in the past. The union used to manage the organisation. Now we do consult them, but we made it clear that management is our business. Last month, the union had issued a strike notice and, later, deferred it to May 27. I am confident there will be no strike.

He said accumulated losses of Rs 60 crore had wiped out the entire working capital of 25 years, aggravated by liberalisation, which led to withdrawal of budgetary support by the government.

The company, which does the explosion work for other mining undertakings, also suffered when Coal India and Bharat Aluminium Company started their own exploration units. The corporation is now planning to diversify and enter mining. It has approached several foreign companies for joint ventures.

A proposal to take over the Maharashtra State Mining Corporation was also under review, Prasad said.

Prasad said business development centres had been set up at Nagpur, Calcutta, Udaipur and Ranchi, and two more were planned at New Delhi and Bangalore. Prasad said 80 per cent of the companys total expenditure was towards payment of salaries.

The new policy of deploying majority of the staff in the field units, where the actual work of the corporation lies, had angered those who had got used to the easy life of sitting in the office.

There was some resistance to the new plans from them, he said.

By establishing direct communication with the staff, the management convinced them to voluntarily accept a scheme of working at a stretch for 15 days in the field and 15 days off straight later.

Field life had been made comfortable by increasing amenities. 100 employees had been promoted, while 625 others had been upgraded and a wage revision agreed to in-principle, Prasad said.

Now everyone gets salary by the end of the month, which was not the case in the past, he said, and hoped the new work culture being developed in the company would put it back on the rails again.