Around 600 ceramic units in and around Morbi stopped operations indefinitely in protest against the state government's failure to reduce the price of expensive natural gas supplied by the state-owned GSPC. The strike is already against the disparity in gas prices in Saurashtra and north Gujarat. This, after the units were forced to switch to expensive natural gas following a public interest litigation in the Gujarat high court over the pollution caused by cheaper coal gas. (The GSPC reduced gas prices the day the strike started, though it was rejected by the Ceramic Wall Tiles Association.)
The shutdown has badly affected labourers, packagers and truck operators who are sitting idle. "I employ 200 people, out of which 100 have become jobless because of no work at all," said Sanjay Patel, owner, Smile Ceramic.
As many as 5000 trucks are stranded at Morbi for want of consignment and over 1000 tiles showrooms are closed. "Morbi has a population of 5 lakh and half the population is associated with ceramic industry," said Patel.
The different owners of the ceramic units are paying daily wages to over 60,000 workers despite there being no work. They say that they will pay their employees until December 11 and, if the government, does not agree to their demands by then, they will ask their workers to go home.
Morbi Bachavo Samiti (MBS) reiterated the demands of ceramic industries association on Wednesday and questioned the dual pricing of gas.
"North Gujarat gets gas at Rs 10/kg and the same gas is priced at Rs 40/kg in Saurashtra. Why this big difference?" said Manoj Panara, president, MBS.
The shutdown has also affected exports badly. With all the units on strike, orders that can fill 700-800 containers, are pending. "The orders were placed 20 days back according to old rates. Now the rates have gone up. If we manufacture to for the orders we will suffer huge losses", said Sanjay Patel of Sizzle Ceramic.
Further, ceramic units are demanding implementation of guidelines issued by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) to allow use of producer gas; revision of value added tax (VAT) structure to match that of substitutes such as marble and granite; and revision of excise duty for ceramic products in view of commoditization.
In October, the Gujarat high court had ordered closure of coal-fired gasifiers in response to a PIL objecting to the pollution caused by them.
Last week, hours before the shutdown, GSPC had announced a partial rollback of prices though this was rejected by the Ceramic Wall Tiles Association. "Our demand is that the GSPC should reduce the gas price further and provide us natural gas at the price at which other industries in north Gujarat are getting it. Our fight will continue till the government concedes our pending demands," said Divyesh Patel, president of Ceramic Wall Tiles Association.
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