Urging Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to immediately intervene and resolve the dispute between the workers and the management of Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) at the Bidadi plant, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Sunday said he would raise the issue in the Assembly to bring pressure on the government.
“The employees of Toyota have been protesting for about three months. The State government should have resolved the issue by now. If the problem cannot be resolved by the Labour Minister, the Chief Minister should intervene,” he said during his visit to the protest site at Bidadi, near here, to meet the protesting workers and their families. He said the government should immediately intervene since the families of workers were in a dire situation as they have not received salary for three months.
Mr. Siddaramaiah spoke to Labour Minister Shivaram Hebbar on the phone and urged him to resolve the dispute immediately.
“Deputy Chief Minister and Ramanagaram district in-charge C.N. Ashwath Narayan conducted a conciliatory meeting between the workers and the management. The meeting lasted 20 minutes and he declared it successful. If the meeting was successful, would the workers still be sitting in protest?” he asked. The Congress leader also said that he had told the management representatives, who met him recently, to sort out the dispute amicably. “Water, power, and land has been given to the company by the State. The workers should be treated fairly. The management should respect the law of the land. Being a Japanese company, it cannot forcibly try to implement Japanese law here. Though we welcome foreign investment, we expect them to comply with the local laws,” he said.
He also pointed out that despite D.K. Suresh Kumar, MP for Bengaluru Rural, holding a meeting and former legislator Balakrishna taking out padayatra, the deadlock had continued.
