Standard Motors Union Plea To Revive Company

Talking to reporters here, the union president and United Communist Party of India chairman, D Pandian, held the management and its last promoter, A C Muthiah, squarely responsible for the company's present plight.

He would meet the chief minister, M Karunanidhi, on October 10 and urge him to devise a scheme to revive the company as well as file an appeal against the winding-up ordered by a judge of the high court yesterday. Pandian said a possible solution lay in the state transport corporations taking over SMPL and carrying out necessary modifications at its Perungalathur factory near here so that bus bodies and spare parts could be manufactured there and supplied to the transport

 

corporations. He also demanded that action be taken against Muthiah to force him to pay all dues to workers, including the unpaid amounts under the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), and bring back Rs 2 crore transferred from SMPL to Tamil Nadu Petroproducts Ltd. Pandian hoped the government would implement the DMK's election promise to revive SMPL. Further, Karunanidhi had given an assurance in the assembly that he would ensure the re-opening of the factory, which is under closure since April 1, 1994. (it was earlier closed between February 1989 and February 1992.

Thereafter, it was working for seven days a month up to mid-1993, when it was again closed, but forced to open by the government after 18 days).

The state government had given a loan of Rs three crore before the factory was opened in 1992. Tamil Nadu Petro Products Ltd, in which also the government held substantial stakes, had contributed another Rs 3 crore.

Thus, it was the government's duty to hold an enquiry into the company's state of affairs, for which the workers could not be blamed in any way.

As per the agreement of 1992, the management ought to have pumped in the required money for working capital, and give full employment to the workers who, in turn, undertook to make 8,000 vehicles a year. However, they could not fulfil the promise as the factory worked only for seven days a month, and they were not given enough materials required for manufacture.

SMPL's revival would be possible only if a promoter was found, he conceded, but hoped the government would devise some alternative scheme.