New Delhi : The Sahara group on Monday told the Supreme Court its television and press operations had been shut and its employees were deserting it. Also, there was a courtroom bidding war for a property of the group in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.
Sahara counsel Kapil Sibal told the Supreme Court its “television network and press have shut down; employees are running away.” He added he was in the process of filing a petition explaining the difficulties faced by the group and how it would not be able to meet the conditions set by the Supreme Court for the release of group chief Subrata Roy.
Reports said the police had to be called in as employees of the group at its Noida office agitated after finding the premises locked. Some were planning to take the demonstrations to Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
Shares of Sahara One Media and Entertainment, which housed the group’s general entertainment channels and movie production businesses, traded sparsely, falling three per cent to Rs 71 apiece at the end of Monday’s trade. A Sahara spokesperson did not respond to calls.
Contradictory to the claim of Sahara, the employees of Sahara, who have been undergoing hardship for non-payment their wages for so many have rightly decided to strike the work in the newspaper and its news channel because there was no other course left for them.
Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) and its affiliate Delhi Union of Working Journalists (DUWJ) have extended unflinching support to the striking employees of Sahara.
In a joint statement, the IFWJ Secretary General Parmanand Pandey and the General Secretary of the DUWJ Chandan Rai have denounced the anti-labour, exploitative and dictatorial managements of Sahara.
They also claimed that ”employees of the Sahara group have been very loyal to the owner of newspaper but there is always a limit to any tolerance. The Sahara management has always defied the law of the land and imposed its own set outrageous laws and rules for the employees but they questioned “how long it can work when their bellies are empty”.?
