Bhubaneswar, Aug. 28: In a rerun of the Nilachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) blockade in Orissa’s Jajpur district seven months ago, dozens of youths today blocked the gate to Visa Steel’s integrated 0.5 million-tonne project in the Kalinga Nagar industrial complex, demanding jobs in the company.

The blockade, which started in the wee hours today, brought production to a halt. It was lifted around 7 in the evening after Visa authorities said they would look into the demand for jobs.

While the blockade was on, the protesting youths prevented both men and material from entering or leaving the plant.

Company officials said the youths, under the banner of the Sukinda Unemployed Technical Youth Association, pitched a tent next to the main gate around 2 am when more than 70 employees were on a shift.

The protesters neither let the employees, who completed work this morning, to leave the premises nor did they let workers on the next shift enter. The youths, many of them diploma holders intechnical studies, demanded that the company absorb at least 40 of them.

“As the main gate is effectively closed, iron ore heaped at railway sidings cannot enter the plant. My employees have not been able to go home for food. Though raw material is available, I have to switch off production in another hour. I just don’t have the manpower,” said P.K. Sinha, divisional manager (human resource).

The official later said he had been trying to hold talks with the agitators, but the latter did not respond.

On August 21, Sinha said, the association had sent a letter to the managing director and other senior officials of the company as well as the Jajpur district officials warning of a blockade if its demands were not met.

“After we got the letter, we tried to contact them over phone, but without success. They gave us no time to discuss the demands and resorted to a blockade. It’s cruel,” he said.

The 13,000-acre industrial complex has been in the news since January 2 when 13 tribals were killed in police firing while opposing land acquisition by Tata Steel.