BICHOLIM: The delegation of Vedanta mining company workers on Tuesday met Speaker Rajesh Patnekar to apprise him about the mining companys move to shift the mining machinery elsewhere. Later workers also submitted a memorandum to Bicholim deputy collector Sachin Desai requesting him to look into the matter. The workers told the Speaker that they are facing acute financial crunch since the company is paying them 50 per cent of the payment. President of association Nilesh Karbotkar told him that it is not possible to maintain their family with half payment, the majority portion of which goes to bank loan deduction and they get only Rs 2000 in hand. After listening to their grievances, Patnekar assured them that he will hold talks with Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to find out amicable solution for the same. "I will discuss this issue with chief minister to find out an amicable solution and also discuss the same with management along with CM," Patnekar told them.
The Speaker also expressed concern over the fact that company was paying half payment to the workers and said it would have been good if company had paid full salary to the workers. The workers later submitted memorandum to the Bicholim deputy collector Sachin Desai in which they requested him to hold talks with company to pay them full salary, increasing bonus and to pay pending arrears. They also told Desai that they would agitate again by holding dharna if the company tries to shift the machinery. After listening to them, Desai assured them to look into the matter. Other delegation members Kishore Lokre, Mahesh Hoble, Indrakant Falkar, Babuso Karbotkar, Laxmikant Naik, Narayan Naik and others were also present.