Warangal: A permanent employee of the defunct Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) factory in Kamalapur of Mangapet mandal, Mandava Shankar Rao, attempted suicide on Friday at his quarters in the BILT colony. Neighbours who noticed his condition rushed him to a hospital near Eturnagaram. He was later taken to Hyderabad for better treatment. His condition is said to be critical till the last reports came in. The suicide note found inside his house which blamed the management and the workers’ union leaders.
The BILT factory workers have been asking the management to reopen the factory and pay their pending wages. On Thursday midnight the management brought two trucks and a crane to the factory to shift some of the machinery to another place. The workers who came to know about this rushed to the factory and stopped the trucks. They confronted the deputy general manager Keshava Reddy and told him that they will not allow any machinery to shift outside the factory. They demanded him to write in written form that no such conspiracy to deceive workers would be plotted again in the future.
Convinced that the management is not going to reopen the factory, Shankar Rao decided to commit suicide. He has been depressed due to financial problems since a long time as he was not receiving his salary since 31 months. His son is studying in a hostel. His wife is visiting their daughter who is pregnant. He was alone in the house when he consumed pesticide to take his life.
The suicide note left by him read he lost all hope that the management would do them justice. The note read, “Union leaders are backstabbing workers for their personal benefits. They have extracted money from all of us. They are not to be trusted. At least now the management would realise what kind of situation the workers are in.
