Pahalgam attack aftermath: Long leaves cancelled at ordnance factories | India News

NAGPUR/JABALPUR/KOLKATA: Amid surging tensions with Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack, Munitions India Limited (MIL), agglomerate of the 12 ordnance factories across the country, has cancelled long leaves of its employees at most plants, sources told TOI on Friday. No leave beyond two days is permitted for the next two months.
Senior management sources, including those on the board, denied the directive had anything to do with the post-April 22 tension. The official reason – from Ordnance Factory Chandrapur to Jabalpur – is that they have missed production targets for April and are catching up. Officials at Chandrapur cited pressure of global export orders.
MIL said it put its employees on “alert mode” after the Pahalgam attack. “If there is urgency to expedite our production, we should be able to do it… But there is no official decision to cancel leave of employees across the 12 factories,” a senior MIL official told TOI.

‘Cancellation of leaves aimed at accelerating defence production’

On condition of anonymity, an official at Jabalpur’s Ordnance Factory-Khamaria said the order was issued “in view of national security”. An official at Ordnance Factory-Itarsi echoed this.
In case of emergency, employees can apply to the “appropriate authorities”, says the order issued Thursday.
At Gun & Shell Factory-Cossipore in Bengal, an employee confirmed that an order had been issued on Friday, cancelling leaves in the “current scenario”. An officer in Kolkata refused to confirm or deny the development but said it would be “logical if leaves were cancelled given the current situation”.
Leaves of all employees of Badmal Ordnance Factory in Balangir, Odisha, have also been cancelled for 60 days. There is, however, no such order at OF-Bhandara (Maharashtra) under MIL, which manufactures powerful explosives RDX and HMX.
A senior official from the Department of Defence Production, under which the ordnance factories come, told TOI, “We have not issued any official circular in this regard to ordnance factories. But some PSUs have internally instructed their employees to avoid going on leave due to the current scenario.”
Mukesh Singh, president of Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMS), one of the largest unions of the ordnance factories, told TOI, “We have come to know from our employees working in MIL that their leave has been cancelled. However, we have not got any official communication from the company as yet.”
The Pune-headquartered MIL is the main ammunition manufacturing company under ministry of defence. The 12 units under it produce the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher, IAF bombs, armour-piercing tank ammunition, high-explosive tank ammo and artillery shells, plus infantry weapons like 81mm and 51mm mortar bombs, and hand grenades (including a multi-mode type that can be switched between offensive and defensive modes). They also produce 5.56mm, 7.62mm and 9mm bullets for the full range of firearms used by infantry.
At OFK and OF-Chandrapur, all 7,000 employees have been told no extended leaves will be allowed, and those sanctioned stand cancelled. The same held for OF-Itarsi.
OFK is one of the largest ammunition manufacturers for the military. In the Balakot air strike, 1000-pound bombs made at OFK were used by IAF to pound locations across the LoC. And during the Kargil War, OFK supplied the fuzes for Bofors shells that smashed Pakistani positions atop mountain tops.
Leaves have not been cancelled at non-MIL ordnance factories — like the five in Kanpur and Jabalpur-based Gun Carriage Factory, which manufactures the Dhanush 155mm artillery guns.
A senior officer of Ordnance Factory Chandrapur (OFC) said cancellation of leaves is aimed at accelerating production. Apart from orders from Indian armed forces, MIL — a defence PSU carved out of erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) — is also sitting on a huge export order, said sources.