Old workers of the Pranadhara packaged drinking water bottling plant protested in front of the main gate at Kalyaneshwari in West Burdwan. The workers staged a strong demonstration over not getting their pending wages and losing their jobs after working for a long time on very low pay. They also alleged that outsiders are now given jobs at the plant instead of local people.
Five workers named Samrat Handi, Vishu Das, Milan Pradhan, Kishan Handi, and Deepak Bauri worked at the plant for about eight years. They received a monthly salary of only around 1,500 to 2,000 rupees. The protesting workers stated that their salary payments were stopped for the last year and a half to remove them from work. They also claimed that despite earlier assurances by officials that at least three old workers would be kept, the plant was restarted with new workers from other areas like Ramnagar, Devipur, Kulti, and ward number 66.
Police from the Chourangi outpost reached the spot to handle the situation after the protest threatened to affect water production. Anupam Saha, the assistant engineer of the PHE Mechanical Division in Asansol, stated that a private agency runs the bottling plant. He added that he does not have detailed information about the appointments and that the new people were appointed on the instructions of the MIC.
