Ire over delay in FACT revival package

The inordinate delay in getting ₹991-crore revival package has forced the Save FACT Action Committee to observe a protest day in Ernakulam district on May 12.

The committee has called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal, besides a 24-hour industrial strike and blockade of trains on that date to register its protest.

The action committee has been leading a 190-day-old agitation seeking government intervention to save the public sector fertiliser company, which is currently passing through a severe financial crisis.

The hartal and industrial strike were called in protest against the failure of the Centre to come to the assistance of the company and the delay on the part of the government in approving the financial revival package approved by the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE).

BRPSE approved the revival package for FACT in December last year. The recommendation was approved by the Union Finance Ministry on March 5. However, the proposals are pending approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

The FACT employees have expressed the apprehension that if the revival package was not approved within this month the company’s day-to-day operations would come to a standstill.

The FACT Chairman and Managing Director Jaiveer Srivastava, during an interaction with media persons at the regional committee meeting of the Fertilisers Association of India, had also pointed out that the operations of the company would come to a standstill, if the government failed to come out with the package.

He pointed out that the company is running out working capital and all the channels of cash flow have been exhausted and not in a position even to raise money for its day to day operations.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Government has approached the Centre to clear the special financial package for the revival of the company without delay as the financial condition of the company has worsened.

Demanding early clearance of the revival package, the State Chief Minister Ommen Chandy in a letter to the Prime Minister pointed out that the financial situation has come to such a level that entire operation of the company might come to standstill leading to its closure.

He also requested the Union Government to take steps to provide priority approval for the financial package.