Suzuki Motor Corp chairman and chief executive Osamu Suzuki on Sunday met Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and said that the special investigating team (SIT) probing the violence at the company?s Manesar plant must find the root cause of the incident to ensure that such events don?t recur.
However, after Suzuki’s meeting with Hooda, Maruti Suzuki India chairman RC Bhargava clarified that Haryana continued to be the company?s ?first home?.
Asked whether the company’s R4,000-crore investment in Gujarat came up for discussion, Bhargava said,?Hooda is aware of our plan to expand in Gujarat and why we?re going (there) and it is, in no way, against the interests of Haryana. He is fully understanding and there?s no problem on that account at all.? Apart from Bhargava, other top officials of MSIL, including managing director Shinzo Nakanishi , COO, administration, S Y Siddiqui, and COO, production, M M Singh, were present at the meeting.
Suzuki’s meeting with Hooda comes a day after he returned from Gujarat, where he met chief minister Narendra Modi and inspected the 700-acre land at Mehsana district where the company is expected to install its third production facility in the country ? the largest outside Haryana.
He would now attend the MSIL’s AGM, scheduled for August 28, a day before he concludes his India visit.
Bhargava said Suzuki thanked Hooda for the government?s support to the company during the tough times. Reiterating the company’s commitment to the state, Bhargava said: ?Manesar will house the third production line, the R&D track in Rohtak is proceeding as planned, and a motorcycle plant will also come up in Rohtak. So, investments in several thousand crores is taking place; it is not small.?
The company has already invested over R12,000 crore in the state till now. Asked if the dismissal of 500 workers at the Manesar facility figured in the talks, Bhargava said: ?It was mentioned that we have terminated the services of all those people who were identified as being part of the trouble which took place and the CM himself is of the view that anybody who is found guilty must be punished.?
