Union to match Mukesh's Super Bazar bid

The Indian Labour Cooperative Society, along with Indian Potash Ltd, has decided to match Reliance Industries' Rs 288-crore (Rs 2.28 billion) bid to revive Super Bazar, the ailing shopping cooperative.

The offer, made a few days back before the Supreme Court, is contained in an application filed by the Super Bazar Karamchari Dalit Sangh in response to the government's attempt to revive the multi-state cooperative.

The ILC-IPL combine had earlier offered Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) to revive the cooperative, which has been under liquidation since 2002.

According to the Super Bazar Karamchari Sangh, ILC and IPL, in which cooperatives hold 70 per cent, had stated in their bid that their primary aim was to revive Super Bazar, and protect the interests of its jobless employees.

"ILC and IPL have proposed to give to 1,025 employees benefits like continuity of service, by payment of provident fund for the intervening period, which would help us to avail of pension benefits," the union's president, Jagdish Chaudhary, said.

In its application, the Sangh has also contended that a mere announcement by Reliance on entry into the retail business could not be counted as experience in the sector.