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PSUS:
TEMPLES OF DOOM
Malarial
Malady
Curbs
on DDT sounded the death knell for the insecticide producer.
By
Sumit Mitra
HINDUSTAN
INSECTICIDES LTD
Incorporated: 1954; HQ: Delhi; Public investment: Rs 150.5 cr; Product:
Insecticides; No. of workers: 2,313; Net worth: Rs 38.9 cr
Hindustan
Insecticides Limited (HIL) was incorporated in 1954 to run a DDT plant
gifted by the World Health Organisation. The factory for making 700 tonnes
of "technical" DDT, or the unbranded generic mosquito-killer
and its branded formulations, came up in west Delhi soon enough.
The world
was a lot simpler then. If a war against the dreadful malaria were to
be waged, who but the state would get the charge? Or so it was assumed.
Nor did anybody suspect that DDT, the newly developed protector of the
Allied forces in the malarial swamps of the tropics, would some day be
counted among the top ecological destabilisers in the world because of
its non-biodegradable properties. The government banned the use of DDT
in agriculture in 1989, keeping only its public health application open
to use. But by then HIL had expanded its DDT capacity to over 27,000 tonnes
at its three plants in Delhi, Rasayani in Maharashtra and Alwaye in Kerala.
The ban
dealt HIL a critical blow because agriculture accounted for three-quarters
of the total DDT use. However, the knock-out punch came in 1996, when
the Supreme Court ordered the closure of 168 industrial units in Delhi,
including HIL's. The apex court not only ordered the factory to be shut
down but asked for its relocation to either Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab
or Himachal Pradesh. So the machinery could not be moved out to either
of HIL's existing facilities in Maharashtra and Kerala. Besides, the order
entitled the Delhi employees to full wages till the unit's relocation,
and then a year's extra wages as reward for agreeing to work at a different
place.
The company
is moving the Delhi unit to Bhatinda in Punjab, but without the DDT facility.
This is in deference to the state Government's objection. Meanwhile, HIL's
bottom line is shattered. While the wage bill for the Delhi unit's 564
(now 483) idle labour has cost the company Rs 28 crore so far, the production
loss in the non-DDT insecticides, such as malathion and endosulfan (a
broad-spectrum insect-killer), has been enormous. HIL's viability got
further dented when the Centre decided to decentralise the Anti-Malaria
Programme (known as National Malaria Eradication Programme earlier) by
supplying malathion to the states to the extent of Central assistance,
leaving it to the states to source their own contribution. Most states
began buying malathion from firms other than HIL.
In the 1990s,
HIL made some bold survival attempts by launching a range of formulations
based on such technicals as Butachlor, the herbicide, or Dicofol, the
anti-mite chemical. But, with the anti-malarial market truncated, HIL
was doomed. Says Rajendra Mohan, chairman and managing director: "Half
of our production is targeted at malaria eradication. So our fate is linked
to public spending there."
Realising
that the job of killing insects is better put in the hands of private
firms, the Disinvestment Commission recommended in its 1998 report that
the government sell its majority stake. Insecticides, for all their social
use, are a poison after all, with their manufacture facing increasing
external resistance from environmentalists. The public-sector DDT monopoly
collapsed because of its inadequacy to cope with the resistance. Its future
private sector managers may have a better luck.
Swadeshi
Soap-Bubble
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The
Indian industry has increased its decibel level of whining. Instead, it
should get the government to deliver, says INDIA TODAY Associate Editor
V. Shankar Aiyar in 