New Delhi, Dec 02: The workers union of Indian Charge Chrome Ltd, a subsidiary of Indian Metal and Ferro Alloy Group, has accused Tata Steel of stalling its revival even as IDBI approved the restructuring package, and has sought the Prime Minister's intervention in resolving the issue. In a letter to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ICCL union has said that its revival would cut down the virtual monopoly of Tatas in chrome rich Sukinda Valley; so Tatas had been adopting all ways to arrest the efforts put in by ICCL for its revival.

ICCL also claimed that Tatas had lost a case against them and the arbitrator had ruled that Tatas should pay huge damages, may be more than Rs 200 crore, to ICCL.

"The company (ICCL) was handicapped at the outset when captive chrome ore mining lease was not given, although it was a pre-condition for setting up the plant. To get over this barrier the company had entered into a conversion contract with Tata Iron and Steel (TISCO) which the Tatas refused to honour; so a long legal case was fought which ICCL won," the company said in its letter to Prime Minister. TISCO officials did not comment despite repeated attempts.

Meanwhile, after a long legal case, captive mining lease was given in late 1999 (after 10 years) and that too for only 50 per cent of ICCL's requirement, the letter said, adding Tata's mining lease in Sukinda Valley was reduced from more than 1200 hectares to just 400 hectares. Bureau Report