No solution came out in the meeting held on Tuesday in the chamber of Joda BDO to sort out demand raised by one Bilashini Karua, wife of Mohanty Karua, a former emlpoyee of Tata Sponge, who has been sitting in dharna for over 145 days in front of the main gate of the factory at Bilaipada under Joda block.
Deceased Mohanty, a permanent employee of Tata Sponge, had died while on duty on August 4, 2006. It is alleged that the company authority had performed the postmortem of the body without informing the next of the kin of the deceased.
When the bereaved family members raised the issue before the proper forum, the then MD Ashok Pandit had tried to contain the situation by offering a company job to the son of the deceased . Accordingly ,his son worked in the company but dispute started when Deepak, the beneficiary, was thrown out of job after working for 3 years in the year 2009. Since then the bereaved family members are trying to get justice but of no result.
However, the matter got highlighted when Bilashini sat on dharana what she has been continuing till today.
In the meanwhile, not only Meenakshi Mahanta, MLA, Champua , Chandrani Murmu, MP, Keonjhar, had given her assurances that she will be given justice but also her problem has come to the notice of the President of India and the National Human Right Commission. The NHRC had issued a direction to the Chief Secretary and Collector, Keonjhar to submit an action taken report on the issue. Last time, Ashish Thakre, DM, Keonjhar, during his visit to Joda Municipality, had also assured Bilashini of solving her problem shortly.
Accordingly, Khirod Kumar Behera, Tehsildar, Barbil, who is also in charge of Joda BDO, had called a meeting of both parties such as MD,Tata Sponge and Bilashini in the Joda block office. While Sanjay Patnaik, MD and three other officers had attended the meeting from the company side, Bilashini and her son joined it.
However, after the meeting, both the parties were firm on their respective stand .
While the company is offering two jobs under contractor, Bilashini is demanding a permanent job. Similarly, while company is referring that there is no such provision in the company ,the complainant is demanding that her husband was a permanent employee
She further claimed that while the company has given jobs to the sons of other employees on the ground of being unfit due to sickness , then ,why her case will not be considered.However, Tehsildar Behera opined that the dispute can be solved if either of two would soften their stand.