Save FACT Action Committee, a combine of trade unions, which is on a protest over more than 100 days now to draw the attention of the government to the problems of the public sector fertilizer company expressed disappointment on Saturday regarding “misleading” news reports that wrongly implied that the company had been sanctioned a revival package.
FACT has not got the revival package of Rs. 991 crore but only the Rs. 149 crore in the form of pending subsidy, said a statement issued by the committee here on Saturday ahead of a mammoth rally they called the ‘Save FACT Evening’ and protest meeting organised in Eloor in front of the headquarters of the company. The recommended package includes a one-time financial assistance of Rs. 250 crore; Rs. 300 crore as interest-free loan and a waiver of Rs. 441.9 crore, which is accumulated loans, interest and penal interest thereon.
Meanwhile, the protest rally organised on Saturday was attended by over 10,000 people from different trade unions and industrial units in Kalamassery, claimed a statement from Save FACT Action Committee. Vice-president of the KPCC, M.M. Hassan, who inaugurated the protest meeting, said that FACT, which was the industrial face of Kerala, was in serious trouble now. K. Chandran Pillai, convenor of Save FACT Action Committee; V. Madhu, secretary of FACT Officers’ Federation and K. N. Ravindranath, CITU State vice-president, spoke.