‘Save Mysore Sandal from private hands’

“Mysore Sandal Soap is the wealth of the state; it was created straight out of our people’s hands. Do not let other private parties put their hands into it.” This was the appeal from GR Shivashankar, president of Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL) Employees Union, to the government. The proposal of the government to begin disinvestment procedures against them has the KSDL baffled.

“We have been doing well for many years now. We have a profit of over `2.5 crore this year,” said GR Shivashankar, president of the Employees Union.

Amrutheesh NP, legal advisor to KSDL, hints at IAS ‘babus’ lobbying against them. “We have 47 acres of prime lands in Yeshwantpur. What happened to NGEF and the Mysore Lamp Factory is going to happen to us because of land grabbing,” he said.

Mysore Sandal, which came into existence under Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, is six years short of being a 100-year-old company. Shivakumar said, “It is not right to give away a historical factory to private hands.  Our soaps are sold at prices affordable to the common man. Will this be possible once it is given to private hands?”