<p>Joint general manager Kamaljit Singh Nagi of Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) Limited tractor division committed suicide on Monday afternoon within the campus. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The deceased, a high-ranking official, was reportedly not paid his salary, like many other employees of HMT, for the past year. He was under stress and jumped off a water tank. The exact cause of his death is still unclear. <br /><br />HMT Limited tractor division is a PSU located on the outskirts of capital city Chandigarh in Pinjore in Haryana. HMT faces closure and thousands of its employees will be rendered jobless even as the Centre is looking at lucrative options to compensate its employees. <br /><br />Salary dues <br />HMT tractor division employees have purportedly not been paid salaries for a long time and the incident is being seen as a fallout of the crisis that this PSU has been reeling under for some time now. Vijay Bansal, advocate and president of the HMT Bachao Sangarsh Samithi said they will hold a protest march in front of the Haryana Assembly on Tuesday. <br /><br />Over five decades after its inception, the massive tractor manufacturing unit of HMT is likely to be shut down amid protest and resistance from local leaders. It was the first unit to be established away from its Bengaluru factory way back in 1964. A communique from the Union Heavy Industries Minister Anant G Geete to the state government last December had asked Haryana to take over the entire land of the unit. This would come in lieu of settling dues of voluntary retirement of its employees and for dealing with other outstanding liabilities. <br /><br />The ministry’s response follows a communication by the state government which had asked the ministry to transfer surplus land of the unit to the state for creation of another industrial estate. <br />Now, in the wake of a different, perhaps, unexpected response from the Centre, the state government is viewing the matter afresh. But the decision to shut down may not be easy, given its political ramifications and effect it will have on the 1,800 employees. <br /><br />HMT has been in the red for several years now and from a high production of nearly 19,000 tractors at one time in 1999, the production currently has dropped to about 10% of its optimum high production. <br />DH News Service</p>
<p>Joint general manager Kamaljit Singh Nagi of Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) Limited tractor division committed suicide on Monday afternoon within the campus. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The deceased, a high-ranking official, was reportedly not paid his salary, like many other employees of HMT, for the past year. He was under stress and jumped off a water tank. The exact cause of his death is still unclear. <br /><br />HMT Limited tractor division is a PSU located on the outskirts of capital city Chandigarh in Pinjore in Haryana. HMT faces closure and thousands of its employees will be rendered jobless even as the Centre is looking at lucrative options to compensate its employees. <br /><br />Salary dues <br />HMT tractor division employees have purportedly not been paid salaries for a long time and the incident is being seen as a fallout of the crisis that this PSU has been reeling under for some time now. Vijay Bansal, advocate and president of the HMT Bachao Sangarsh Samithi said they will hold a protest march in front of the Haryana Assembly on Tuesday. <br /><br />Over five decades after its inception, the massive tractor manufacturing unit of HMT is likely to be shut down amid protest and resistance from local leaders. It was the first unit to be established away from its Bengaluru factory way back in 1964. A communique from the Union Heavy Industries Minister Anant G Geete to the state government last December had asked Haryana to take over the entire land of the unit. This would come in lieu of settling dues of voluntary retirement of its employees and for dealing with other outstanding liabilities. <br /><br />The ministry’s response follows a communication by the state government which had asked the ministry to transfer surplus land of the unit to the state for creation of another industrial estate. <br />Now, in the wake of a different, perhaps, unexpected response from the Centre, the state government is viewing the matter afresh. But the decision to shut down may not be easy, given its political ramifications and effect it will have on the 1,800 employees. <br /><br />HMT has been in the red for several years now and from a high production of nearly 19,000 tractors at one time in 1999, the production currently has dropped to about 10% of its optimum high production. <br />DH News Service</p>
