For the employees of 150-year-old Geological Survey of India (GSI) who have been fighting for months against its top management’s move to shift various departments out of Kolkata, it was time to cheer when Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday threw his weight against the decentralisation of the institute.

“We met Pranabda and Coal Minister B K Handiqui. They both said its departments will not be shifted out of the city. The GSI is an old organisation and has a long history with the city and we will not let the departments be shifted out of here,” said Satyabrata Dey, an assistant secretary of the staff union at the GSI.

The employees alleged that a high-powered committee with seven members had been formed in April this year to facilitate the move to shift some departments out of the city. They said four departments — coal, marine engineering and transport and exploration and mapping — were going to be shifted to other cities.

“The finance minister allocated Rs 1,500 crore in the budget this year for the GSI. So, how can top officials claim it is not possible to work from here,” Dey said. According to workers, the deputy general manager at the GSI had claimed it was not possible to work from Bengal and so an alternative office was going to be opened in New Delhi.

However, despite minister’s assurance, several employees remained skeptical. “We have received an order to clear out our workshop in Salt Lake by July 15 and have been told that work would stop from September 30. We are still apprehensive as we are yet to receive the stay order from the finance minister,” said Arindam Chattopadhyay, secretary, Employee’s Association, GSI. “They claim it is too expensive to run the workshop here and that they would be outsourcing the work. But they have also said the drilling work where the employees will be shifted too would be outsourced. In that case, what will happen to the employees?” said Chattopadhyay.

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