Maoist bullying leads Dabur Greenhouse close down

Dabur Nepal, a leading Indian joint venture industry, has closed its operations at Banepa Greenhouse project stating the threats, unreasonable demands and disruptive activities of the Maoists.

"It was not easy to shut down the operations of the project. But we took the decision after the Maoist on December 21, 2006 forcibly entered the greenhouse, threatened and misbehaved with 60 women workers at the premises," said Udayan Ganguly, chief executive officer of Dabur Nepal.

Resumption of operations would depend on how events turn out, said Ganguly at a press meet. "The company has not thought of shifting the greenhouse so far," he added.

Dabur Nepal was operating the greenhouse under its corporate social responsibility project with investment of over Rs 100 million. It has 1.5 million rare and endangered plant species, mostly of local variety. It provides livelihood to thousands of farmers through its 20 satellite farms and 24 cooperatives in 22 districts.

Ganguly flayed the Maoist abuse of female workers, "which included activities such as use of abusive language and manhandling of women workers."

"Civilized world has better ways to settle demands and differences, but it is sad those mechanisms were simply overlooked," said he.

He also said that the company has neither contacted nor wished to contact senior Maoist leaders to talk about the incident. "We were dealing with the demands placed by the Maoists through VDCs. However, the Maoists have been issuing threats to VDC officials as well, refusing to work for an friendly solution," said Ganguly.

As for the demands of the Maoist, Ganguly said, "Those were no different than what the Maoists have been demanding from other industries. Their demand was unreasonable because those were in line with demands they placed at factories, whereas the greenhouse is not a factory," he added.

Ganguly further stated that the company was aware that the incident would send negative signal to foreign investors. "But we have to stand by our corporate mandate," said he.

He also stated that the latest incident would not affect manufacturing and other operations of the company. "Other Dabur Nepal operations will continue as usual," said Ganguly.

Dabur Nepal is a joint venture company established in 1989. It has a turnover of over Rs 3 billion and pays tax of over Rs 250 million per annum to the government.