Lack of support from local communities is hampering the growth of the industry, which could provide more jobs, said K.Srinivasan, Managing Director of Carborundum Universal Limited, a company of the Murugappa Group. Addressing a press conference on the premises of the 50-year-old factory at Kalamasserry near here on Wednesday, he said unreasonable demands from certain quarters were causing impediment to the company’s expansion plans.
The company had entered into a joint venture with an Israeli group for producing bubble refractories, but the foreign partner had quit the Rs.50-crore project following ‘disturbances’ in the locality. A poster campaign was launched alleging pollution and other issues and unreasonable demands for jobs to locals without required qualifications and skills played spoilsport, he said. The factory at Kalamasserry is a zero-discharge unit, he added.
“The foreign partners have their own choice and can opt for alternative locations”, he pointed out. The company has plants in Russia from where a delegation wanted to visit the Kalamssery plant this week, but it was cancelled because of hostile environment prevailing in the area, he said.
The company was in the process of building a ‘tilt furnace’ project at Kalamasserry and the execution of it would largely depend on the support from the local community. The bubble refractories and the tilt furnace projects involved an investment of about Rs.70 crore. “Companies should be allowed to function normally. We can meet only legitimate demands,” he said.
G. Anil Kumar, associate vice-president, Human resources, said the company was experiencing ‘indirect pressure for jobs to locals’. The company has got 30 factories spread across seven countries. Five of them are in Kerala.
