Port Blair, Aug 13: The Congress unit of Andaman andNicobar Islandshas taken up the matter of non-payment of dues to workers of Andaman Timber Industry (ATI) by the ATI management since last 12 years. ATI was one of the biggest private sector industries ofA & NIslands, before 2000.
In a press release, Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, the President of Pradesh Congress Committee today said that the ATI management closed their business in theseIslandswithout paying the full and final dues to its employees in the year 2000.
“A meeting of the workers representatives was held on9th September, 2001with the then Lt Governor of A &N Islandsto discuss the release of payment to workers. It was decided that the dues and retirement benefits of these employees will be paid in three installments by the Management of ATI. Accordingly two installments were disbursed but the third and the major portion of the installment was not disbursed to the employees,” Sharma alleged.
He said that deprived of full and final settlement of the dues, the employees and their family members are passing very hard days.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sharma has written a letter to the Lt. Governor ofA & NIslands, highlighting this problem of ATI workers, who are still waiting for settlement of their dues since more than a decade.
“As per information, some portion of the landed property of ATI will be taken over by the A&N Administration for development of Port related facilities and as such A&N Administration may like to ensure payment of the dues to these poor employees out of the fund to be paid to the owner of the land by the Administration,” Sharma added.
