The widows of the closed Fertilizer Corporation of India employees, living in the quarters leased out to their husbands after the closure of the Sindri Factory, have been served eviction notices by the company.

A meeting of FCI VSS Employees Welfare Association of former employees of Sindri Fertilizer factory was held on Monday during which a three member committee including Uma Shankar Singh, R.C. Prasad and Surendra Shah were constituted to explore legal options to tackle the problem arising out of the eviction notice given by FCI to 217 widows of deceased former employees.

The meeting held under the chairmanship of Sewa Singh, former Public Relation Officer of FCI Sindri unit further also decided to raise the issue with the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by writing letters to them on Tuesday.

Talking to The Telegraph Online on Monday, Sewa Singh who is also the president of FCI VSS employees association said, “The dual policy of FCI at its two different locations is beyond comprehension as over 40 widows of former employees of its Gorkharpur unit who are also living in FCI quarters allotted to their husband have not been served notice as that to 217 widows of FCI Sindri unit and rather their lease amount is also being realised by FCI regularly.”

Around 2000 employees of FCI Sindri unit who lost their jobs on December 31, 2002 due to the closure of the factory have been provided short duration leases of quarters of the company in which they were living. The lease of 11 months which was renewed subsequently was granted following the district administration’s intervention in 2003 after protests carried out by them when all the former employees were served eviction notices after the closure of the factory.

"The retirement benefits of each quarter allottees ranging from Rs 90, 000 to Rs 4.5lakh have been withheld by FCI in the name of security deposits for the lease for which no interest is provided to them and instead they are charged an annual amount in the name of getting electricity and water supply," said Singh and added that they are demanding for the long period of lease instead of 11 months.

On July 12, 2018, the former employees of FCI under the banner of FCI VSS Employees Welfare Association also launched a gherao of the FCI office in Sindri over the same issue over the lease transfer of quarters to dependents of deceased employees during which some assurance was given to send a proposal to ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers in this regard.