OCCC stir ends, chariot ropes on time

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Puri: The uncertainty over timely delivery of ropes for the chariots and security cordon for the Rath Yatra by the Orissa Co-operative Coir Corporation (OCCC) Limited came to an end Saturday after employees of the corporation called off their work boycott strike at the behest of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) minister Prafulla Samal.
At a meeting with the OCCC employees here, Samal assured them of convening a high-level meeting in Bhubaneswar by July 30 to deliberate on the various issues plaguing the corporation and find out ways to solve them.
“We have decided to call off our work boycott agitation after holding discussions with the MSME minister. We will supply chariot ropes to Srimandir on time. Moreover, the corporation will meet the demands for chariot ropes from many other shrines across the state,” said OCCC employees’ association president Muktikanta Mahapatra.
Mahapatra, however, said the employees’ association will resume the agitation if the state government does not fulfill its demands by July 30. The OCCC has been supplying ropes for pulling the three chariots and for security cordon around them since 2011. The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) was earlier sourcing these ropes from Kerala.
This year, the SJTA had asked the OCCC to supply 14 ropes for the chariots and 13 for the security cordon. The corporation had started preparing the ropes at its Barapratap Pur factory soon after receiving a communiqué from the SJTA.
However, the work came to halt June 21 when the employees launched the agitation to press for their eight-point charter of demands.
The issue was raised at the third Rath Yatra coordination meet a few days ago. Subsequently, Revenue minister Maheswar Mohanty, district collector Aravind Agrawal and superintendent of police Sarthak Sarangi held discussions with the agitating OCCC staff.
The MSME department will convene a high-level meeting with the senior officials of Cooperative and Finance departments by July 30 to devise a strategy to revive the coir corporation and fulfill the demands of its employees.