Mangalore, March 21: The Dakshina Kannada district administration and the elected representatives of the district have once again broken their promise made to the job seekers in the Project Displaced Families (PDF) of the Mangalore Special Economic Zone, who are on an indefinite hunger strike in front of the office of Deputy Commissioner here.
Mangalore MP Nalin Kumar Kateel on March 6 had assured the agitators, who had launched their peaceful protest on March 1 that he would convene a crucial meeting at the DC office on March 21 to discuss fulfillment of their demands. The district administration had also assured the same. Elected representatives and higher officials of MRPL among others were expected to take part in the meeting.
However, contrary to the assurance, neither has any meeting been convened so far, nor have any elected representatives including Kateel spoken to the protesters. When the representatives of frustrated agitators, visited the DC office to find out whether the district administration has already forgotten its promise, Additional Deputy Commissioner Prabhakar Sharma replied that the meeting has been postponed to April 25 as the concerned people are not present in the city.
Damodar, one of the protesters, said that despite their hunger strike entering 21st day, no practical steps have been taken by the district administration or state government to address their demands so far, save some unfulfilled assurances.
Around two hundred youth, belonging to MSEZ affected families, who have already completed training and those who are being trained at the Karnataka Polytechnic (KPT) are taking part in the protest.
Currently, 186 candidates have completed the training imparted by the company, while 188 other candidates are still undergoing job training. Most of them had stopped their education half way through following the company's assurance that they would get high salary jobs if they passed out of training classes.
The protesters are of the demand that all the 186 trained candidates be immediately recruited either in MRPL or ONGC and a written assurance be provided for the 188 youth, who are currently undergoing training that suitable jobs will be provided to them too, immediately after they complete their training. If they fail to provide jobs, they have to pay a compensation amount of Rs 30 lakh for each candidate for spoiling their future, say the protesters.
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