As workers protest, govt says no final decision on Ordnance Factory Board yet

Although the protests have been launched against “privatisation” of ordnance factories, the sources said there is no such proposal.

Top sources said there has been no decision on whether to keep the 41 ordnance factories under one organisation or under several divisions. Instead, the sources said, they are “looking at in principle decisions to corporatise”.

The sources said they are proposing formation of a high-level panel that will study the whole issue and take a call.

Defence Ministry sources said several issues have affected the OFB. One of them is that as a department of the ministry, the OFB has had several leadership changes in the last few years. Sources said that in the last four years, there have been six or seven chairpersons as the service officers at the post would retire. In fact, there has been a demand for a fixed two-year tenure for the chairperson, but that hasn’t been agreed to yet, said sources.

Sources said that unlike Public Sector Enterprises “who have Memorandums of Understanding with the secretaries” of their respective ministries “within which they have full functional autonomy”, OFB is still working as a department.

Though the ministry wants the OFB to export, it doesn’t have the budget as the “Army won’t give them the money to export” and as “as a government department, they cannot raise funds from outside”, the top sources said.

“The present structure does not allow it,” a source stated and that this has “put natural constraints on the working” of the OFB.

The current strike, the ministry sources said, was not “worrisome” as the discussions with labour outfits were still on.