Action committee threatens agitation

Kolhapur locals lose jobs to outsiders.

While the industrial development in and around Kolhapur has received the expected momentum, its potential for local employment is yet to be realised.

Most of the medium and big industries in the two industrial estates and the new five-star industrial complex at Kagal are expected to employ the local youth, particularly the landless and the poor in the adjacent rural areas.

The need for employment for the local people is so keenly felt that an action committee has been formed for the purpose.

A member of the action committee and director of Shree Shahu Co-operative Sugar Factory at Kagal, M S Patil, told Business Standard that most of the industries were employing migrant workers from other states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan mostly because the semi-skilled or unskilled workers from other states are ready to work on contract basis and that too without fussing over wages and the number of working hours. But employing outsiders deprives the local youth of employment opportunities.

Despite the establishment of two industrial estates at Shiroli and Gokulshiragaon and the new industrial complex at Kagal, there is no ray of hope for the locals with outsiders grabbing jobs.

Against this background, the action committee has submitted a memorandum to the authorities concerned and also to chiefs of the industrial establishments in the region stressing the need for providing jobs to the locals. "If the appeal falls on deaf ears, we will have to resort to agitation," threatens Patil.

Echoing the sentiments of the committee, minister of state for education Hasan Mushrif agreed that jobs in any new project coming up in the area should go to the locals. The minister made this point on the occasion of inauguration of a new project, Indo Count Industries Ltd (ICIL), at Kagal.

Speaking on the occasion, ICIL's chairman A K Jain said the new unit would manufacture bed linen, table linen, kitchen linen, etc.

The unit with a capital investment of Rs 220 crore comprises weaving, processing, dyeing, printing and manufacturing facility with high quality standards for export to the US and UK. State finance minister Jayant Patil, the chief guest, promised to provide all infrastructure at the industrial complex at Kagal would be provided with all the required infrastructure facilities for which the government decided to invest adequate amount.