India's largest car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki started partial operations at its Manesar plant on Tuesday although no cars were produced. The production in the factory has been affected since Monday as the company sealed its premises after suspending and dismissing 21 employees.

Trouble at the plant started after the management asked employees to sign a good conduct bond, to prevent activities such as go-slow, sit-in strikes and intermittent stoppage of work. The workers refused to sign the bond.

On Tuesday, MSIL relied on factory supervisors to start operations. The Manesar plant has about 290 supervisors. In addition, around 50 diploma engineers from the company's Gurgaon plant were also deputed. The operations were mostly focused in high-automation areas of the plant.

Earlier on Tuesday, the company suspended 16 regular workers and terminated 12 technician trainees on charges of sabotaging and deliberately causing quality problems.

“In the last 30 hours since production came to a halt, the company has been scouting for experienced, ITI-trained manpower in the Manesar belt. It has identified over 200 suitable people and is confident that production will be ramped up in the next few days. These 200 people are likely to join in the next two-three days on contract basis,” a company spokesman said.

Although company sources claimed that so far 36 workers have signed the good conduct bond and were deployed in operations that began Tuesday afternoon, the workers claimed otherwise.

Apart from conducting operations, the day was spent on detailed trials.

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