IRCON ignoring locals in J

Srinagar, Sep 17: Steel traders in Kashmir have accused IRCON International of involving locals on selective basis and at times ignoring them in the construction of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line and sought the intervention of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in this regard.

In a statement here, the Kashmir Super Structural Steel Fabricators Association said IRCON International recently floated tenders for fabrication, supply of steel plate girders, composite and open web steel girders of various spans for construction of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line.

The Small-scale Industries Cooperation (SICOP) participated in the tenders on behalf of the industrial units, it added.

The statement said IRCON International has been involving the locals on selective basis and for the past few months omitted the condition of their participation of Jammu and Kashmir in tenders.

''IRCON has restrained locals to participate in the tenders, thus paving the way for non-state subjects to take benefit of development in our name. The move has ignored hundreds of local industrial units which had fabricated and built steel bridges through length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir to make road connectivity possible despite risking their lives during the ongoing turmoil,'' it added.

The statement said IRCON has ignored SICOP which was established by the Jammu and Kashmir government under the guidelines of the central industrial policy to act as facilitators for seeking marketing cover to the end products of hundreds of industrial units.

''As a result, we have been deprived of a chance to show our capacity utilisation,'' it added.

The traders have appealed to the Railway Minister, the Railway Board Chairman, and the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister to intervene in pressurising IRCON International to review its tender of June 27, 2006 to save hundreds of industrial units with thousands of workers from becoming sick.

UNI