This Town In Gujarat Has A Unique Problem – Too Many Millionaires Working As Labourers

Jagdish Rathod is a 26-year-old man who works as a store officer, in a factory in Sanand, Gujarat and earns a salary of Rs. 12, 000 per month. You know, what’s the interesting part about him? He has Rs. 1.5 crores in banks as deposited money.

No, he didn’t steal that money, nor did the bank make any mistake.

Jagdish Rathod is one of the many people in Sanand, Gujarat who became rich overnight, after the Tata Motor’s Nano plant was removed from Singur, West Bengal to Gujarat.

 

How? Once the company relocated its plant, money as compensation had to be given to everyday labourers like Rathod who owned the land, which was approximately 4000 hectares in size.

When the plant was set up, these land owners had a windfall of about Rs. 2000 crores in total.

 

Jaydeepsinh Vaghela, chairman and managing director, Raviraj Foils, says, “Retaining labour is a major challenge for us. We have to be very cautious in dealing with workers as these jobs are no longer their primary source of income. Only carrot policy works, stick has to be spared.”

Out of the 300 employees working at his firm, at least, 150 have more than a crore in their banks, while their salary still ranges from Rs 9,000 to Rs 20,000 per month.

 

Before the Nano plant was set up, there were 2 banks with 9 branches in Sanand that handled Rs. 104 crores of the deposits. After the plant was set up, 25 news banks with 56 branches in total have sprung up, that now handle deposits worth Rs. 3000 crores.

Parixit Patel, managing director of NAMI Steel adds, “We have high-net-worth individuals in our security and machine operations. Most of them work to keep themselves constructively occupied rather than earn money.” He sold Parixit Industries Ltd, to a Dutch company in 2013 and says, “There were about 50 such crorepati workers in PIL when we exited.”

 

Shailesh Thakkar, secretary, Sanand Industries Association, says, “There are many units that employ crorepati workers. At one point of time, units were hit with high attrition as workers quit jobs after receiving crores of rupees for their land. Thankfully, many have got back to work.”

But once everybody was over the shopping spree after the sudden windfall, most of them got back to their work because they realized that they had nothing to do at home.

No wonder Gujarat is growing richer by the day.

News Source: Economic Times, Times of India

Cover Image Sources 1 & 2