By C. Srikumar
Despite the opposition by the Defence Civilian Employees of 41 Ordnance Factories and also in violation of the previous agreements with the federations, taking advantage of Covid-19 Pandemic, the Narendra Modi government took an unilateral decision to splinter the defence production industry with more than 220 years history into seven non-viable corporations from October 1, 2021. As the trade unions decided to go for indefinite strike against the ill-conceived decision, the Modi government promulgated the draconian Essential Defence Services Ordnance 2021(ESDO 21) and subsequently passed it in the Parliament bypassing the objections raised by the opposition MPs including the left parties. At present the EDSA 2021 has lapsed.
Like demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, the unplanned Covid-19lockdown, the anti farmer three farm laws, the anti-worker four labour codes, corporatization of Ordnance Factories is another misadventure of the Modi government which has totally failed. The three major employees’ organizations of the Defence Civilian Employees namely the All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF),Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMS) and Confederation of defence Recognised Association (CDRA) have conducted an in-depth study about the impact of corporatization of Ordnance Factories during this one year period. They have come to the conclusion with facts and figures that the decision to corporatize taken by the government has proved to be utter failure. In this regard they have submitted a detailed letter to defence minister Rajnath Singh. They have pointed out that even the Vice Chief of the Army Staff has expressed his displeasure over the huge gaps ‘in supply by the newly formed seven Ordnance Factory Corporations’.
The government of India has created the 41Ordnance Factories over the years to safeguard the nation from its aggressive neighbours to equip its armed forces with proven arms and ammunitions and equipment including troop comfort items. A lot of money from the public exchequer has been spent on creating these facilities and modernizing it every time to keep in tandem with the technological advancement in all types of defence equipment making. The technically competent and dedicated manpower that have mastered manufacture of complicated weaponry and sub-systems over the years are also the national asset. However, it is painful to see that these are now being allowed to rot, simply because the people sitting at the ministry and armed forces headquarters seem to have decided not to give sufficient workload to the Ordnance Factories and nor to extend any support.
The government had stated that corporatization of Ordnance Factories would help improve efficiency, autonomy and accountability. But none of these are visible. There is no such improvement after corporatization. In fact, the situation is worsening every day. We are ready to have a discussion in this regard with facts and figures. The reality is that instead of concentrating on productive activities, attention is more on non-productive activities like wastage of money in the name of new set up or other activities such as unnecessary man power transfers and harassment of employees.
It is also pertinent to add that at the time of splintering the 41 Ordnance Factories into seven corporations, the factories were achieving a production target up to Rs 17,000 crores. The claim of the ministry ofdefence at the time of creating the seven corporations was that they will achieve a production value of Rs 35,000 crores in the next five years with value addition every year. It is ironic that instead of giving workload to these corporations to achieve the target, the government has systematically curtailed the workload to them to ruin it. It is even worse in the case of TCL, where the entire workload of four Ordnance Factories have been decided to be given to the private entities by floating tender suitable to certain entities and deliberately barring the TCL Group of Factories even from taking part in ir.
Under these circumstances the unions once again requested the ministry of defence to immediately withdraw the decision taken to create seven Ordnance Factory Corporations, that are to be neither in the national interest nor in the interest of the workforce and would certainly lead to huge shortage of arms, ammunitions along with equipments for the armed forces, who are facing multiple enemies on the border.
Post Corporatization, things have become worse in the Ordnance Factories within one year of Corporatization.
Workload has reduced for almost all the Ordnance Factories and no workload for the four Ordnance Factories under TCL from 2023-2024onwards. With regard to the factories under the other six corporations (MIL, AVNL, AWEIL, IOL, GIL and YIL) there is an uncertainty about the workload in the coming years and their survival and there is no positive approach from the ministry of defence and armed forces in this regard to keep the infrastructure of these factories fully utilized.
In Ordnance Factories like GCF, Jabalpur despite sufficient workload for the time being, most of the jobs are being outsourced which ultimately compromise the quality of the jobs and delay in completing the target. Rework has to be done by the Ordnance Factory workers on many of the components purchased from the trade thereby wasting manpower and public money. When plant and machineries and manpower is readily available in the Factories, we fail to understand why the corporations are resorting to large scale outsourcing which ultimately increases the cost of production as the installed capacity is underutilized.
On paper it is shown that workload is available in AVNL, AWEIL, etc. But physically there is bottle neck in providing materials and components, etc. Acute shortage of manpower due to large scale retirement is not being compensated by fresh recruitments. This affects the production, productivity and target.
Assurances given by the defence minister and the secretary of handholding and all types of support including financial and nonfinancial, to the 41 Ordnance Factories post corporatization is being blatantly violated.
The CMDs of the corporations feel that they are the supreme authority of the DPSUs and it is not required for them to have any consultation/discussion with the major stake holder of the Ordnance Factories that is the Federations and the CDRA.
The officers who were architects of creating these non-viable corporations and responsible for all the today’s mess the Ordnance Factories are facing have been comfortably transferred out and there is no attempt by the MoD/DDP to address the post corporatization problems. No attempt has been made to deal with the uncertainty stalking the employees and the organization.
Accidents in the Ordnance Factories have increased within this one year. Regular accidents are taking place especially in the MIL (erstwhile A&E Group of Factories). To mention specific examples, in the Cordite Factory Aruvankadu and Ordnance Factory Khamaria frequent accidents are taking place. In the major explosion which took place on September29, 2022 in Khamaria, one worker was killed and five others suffered serious injuries, in the accident.
In nut shell there is total chaos and confusions in all aspects in the seven corporations and the purpose for which the government was justifying corporatization is yet to be achieved. It is a failed experiment.
No money is invested for training and R&D activities. For skill and knowledge to be updated and new products to be developed, no initiative is taken.
In view of the abovementioned factors, the Federations have demanded that the government of India should reconsider its decision and withdraw the corporatization and restore the Ordnance Factories as government defence production units. They have given conditional assurance that if Rs 35,000 crores worth of production in the next five years is given they are prepared to extend full support and cooperation. But that can be possible only when the status of the Ordnance Factories are restored as a government organization. (IPA Service)
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