Mumbai: The 73rd AGM of engineering giant Larsen & Tubro on Thursday witnessed some unpleasant scenes with a livid group non-executive chairman AM Naik summoning security marshals to evict shareholders who questioned him for securing the company’s land to set up a cancer hospital in his granddaughter’s memory.
The drama began when Uday Dixit, a shareholder and an ex-employee of L&T, which is the only large company majority-owned by employees, questioned the rationale for allowing Naik to set up a super specialty cancer hospital on the Powai campus in memory of Nirali, his grand-daughter. Dixit and a few other shareholders said the land allotted for the proposed hospital was supposed to be a manufacturing facility of the company till 2019.
“The land belongs to the collector who has given the licence to the company for manufacturing till 2019. How can you demolish it? We are not fools. How can the structure be demolished before 2019 to build a hospital and residential units? Let shareholders know,” Dixit said.
To this Naik said L&T had paid money for the land and so it belongs to the company. To calm down the restive shareholders, managing director and chief executive SN Subramanyan intervened, saying, “We have done it as per the rules and regulations of the company as well as per the government norms. The hospital is not only for employees but also for the general public. We have taken all the necessary permissions and there is nothing illegal. Moreover, the land will continue to belong to the L&T. We have all the documents and I am answering you with all responsibility.”
