Ideologically the CPI(M)-backed CITU and Raj Thackeray’s MNS are poles apart, but in Solapur, they seem to be one. The Left trade union on Tuesday went the MNS way to keep the Provident Fund department away from auctioning two closed mills.

The department has launched a drive to recover the dues by auctioning goods belonging to the defaulter factories across the state. This way, it has recovered crores of rupees from sugar factories by auctioning their sugar.

On Tuesday, the department was to recover Rs.4.83 crore from Solapur and Yeshvant Co-Operative Spinning Mills. However, anti-Bihar slogan raised by hundreds of activists belonging to the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) forced Assistant PF Commissioner Abhaykumar Mandal to leave hastily. The CITU workers were protesting the auction of both the mills.

Mandal, who hails from Bihar, has been working in Solapur for the last three years. He felt so hurt by slogans such as ‘Bihari Mandal go back from Maharashtra’ that he left the venue in tears, without completing the auction process.

The PF department has now postponed the auction of both the mills for a fortnight and would chalk out new strategy to recover the dues.

Both the mills have closed their business owing to huge losses, rendering 5,300 workers unemployed. The mills were under the liquidation process.

Textile Minister Satish Chaturvedi recently met union leaders, PF and Maharashtra State Co-Operative Bank officials in Mumbai, where they decided that the PF dues must first be disbursed. The mills’ sell-out could then follow.

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