HYDERABAD, March 5: The Bangle Workers Action Committee has lashed out at the president of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) for supporting bangle manufacturers against the poor workers and for pressurising the officials of the labour department to ignore and overlook the excesses of the factory owners.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Wednesday, Irshad Ali Abbasi, Mairaj Abbasi and Waseem Siddiqui said the workers employed in different bangle units were being subjected to inhuman excesses by the factory owners but the president of the chamber instead of helping the poor workers was not only supporting the capitalists but also threatening labour department officials of dire consequences if they tried to implement the labour laws.

They said their leaders Noor Ahmed, Rehman Abbasi and Ghayasuddin, who had to address this press conference, were physically prevented by the mill owners from coming to the press club.

They feared that their own services will also be terminated for speaking to reporters.

They said that there were 40 bangle units in Hyderabad, out of which 30 were automatic while ten were working on “Belans” (a traditional method of manufacturing bangle).

They said that automatic factories were working on three shift basis while the others were operating from 1am to 9am at night to avoid payment of taxes and to give an impression to the labour department that the factories were lying closed.

They said that the senior officers of the labour department in order to check this malpractice and raided some factories in the wee hours which invited the wrath of the factory owners and the president of the HCCI.