By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, June 18:
Over 70,000 employees working in 41 ordnance factories across the country, are planning to participate in a symbolic protest on Saturday, against the Union Government’s move to corporatize the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and set up 7 public undertakings to boost defence production.
The employees will burn the effigies of the “corporatization” in front of their respective offices to register their protest. The employees’ unions will decided the future course of action in a virtual meeting being organized on Sunday, R Srinivasan, General Secretary, Indian National Defence Workers Federation (INDWF) told the Imphal Times.
The call for protest has jointly been given by the three national-level trade unions namely All Indian Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), Indian National Defence Workers Federation(INDWF) and Bhartiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMS) having employees from 41 ordnance factories.
A joint circular issued by the general secretaries of these three federations on June 17 stated that “Our struggle against corporatisation and privatisation is continuing. The government is ignoring our protest and going ahead to implement its decision of ruining the 220 years old strategic defence Industry.
On Wednesday the Union cabinet cleared a proposal to overhaul the OFB and split into seven companies to improve productivity and create specialisations in weapons manufacturing, improve their accountability, efficiency and competitiveness. The plan was pending for over two decades.
Describing it as a “historic decision”, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said there will be no change in service conditions of nearly 70,000 employees of the organisation and the decision is driven by efforts to boost India’s defence manufacturing sector. It is a big decision that complements India’s national security requirements. It will help in achieving our targets for defence production” he said.
The seven entities will be like any other defence public sector undertaking (DPSU) and they will be operated by professional management with a larger goal of enhancing the product range, increase competitiveness and improve cost-efficiency. The reform process is being implemented as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for self-reliance in the defence sector.
All employees of OFB (Group A, B and C) belonging to the production units would be transferred to the corporate entities on deemed deputation initially for a period of two years without altering their service conditions as central government employees. The pension liabilities of the retired and existing employees will continue to be borne by the government, said an official.
The seven entities will include an ammunition and explosives group, vehicles group, weapons and equipment group, ‘troop comfort items group’, ancillary group, optoelectronics group and parachute group. The ammunition and explosives group would be mainly engaged in the production of ammunition of various calibre and explosives and its focus would be to exploit the huge potential to grow exponentially including for the export market.
At present, the OFB functions under the department of defence production of the Ministry of Defence. The government has to shell out around Rs 5,000 crore annually to pay the salaries of the OFB employees. Additionally, it gives around Rs 3,000 crore to OFB as an operational cost. The ordnance factories were set up as “captive centres” to serve the needs of the armed forces, but they have been facing performance-related issues for a long time.
Tapan Sen, General Secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions(CITU) denounced “destructive” decision to corporatize the ordnance factories. More than seventy five percent requirements of our defence forces are being successfully and timely produced and supplied by our Ordnance Factories with incomparable efficiency and assured quality. Country’s Ordnance Factories network is an unquestionable example of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”, the phrase being so much noisily touted by the Modi Govt, in the respective areas of production and services. There is absolutely no valid rationale for such drastic alteration of the existing structure of the Ordnance Factories network. It is going to be privatisation with domination of foreign corporates through multi-pronged route, he added.
In the meanwhile the Air Force Wives Welfare Association(AFWA) based in Thane on Maharashtra has begun a drive to distribute free ration and food rackets to the needy during ongoing coronavirus induced lock down. The AFWA distributed ration to over 50 needy persons at Azad Nagar in Thane, adhering to all COVID-19 prevention norms, on Thursday. The AFWA was formed on October 28,1970 to render assistance to retired air force employees, families of the Disabled and late employees. It has been regularly organizing programs to provide relief to air force employees as well as the poor people around Thane for the last several years.
