BANGALORE: Rattled by the violence at Manesar plant, Japanese car maker Maruti Suzuki has sought the help of a vedic astrologer from Bangalore to help sort out the vaastu at the Haryana unit.

Confirming that he has been invited by the company, astrologer Deivajna K N Somayaji told TOI: “The corrections must be done to ensure that the problem does not spread to other units. I have held a few meetings with the company officials.” Somayaji started his assignment on Sunday and is likely to visit the Manesar plant—17 km from Gurgaon—several times to complete the task. Maruti did not respond to TOI’s questions on the issue.

A section of the sprawling 600 acre of land on which the plant has been constructed is said to have once served as a burial ground. Three temples, which existed at the site, were razed to set up the plant. However , there was no confirmation of this from Maruti officials.

As part of the vaastu-correction process, “all negative energy” that exists on the land needs to be removed by conducting an extensive puja. Only after two to three weeks from the rituals, the land will be rid of “all negative energy” , an astrologer said.

All was well at the site, demarcated into Plant A, B and C until a couple of years ago. Plant A was doing considerably well and the company was raking in profits. But, soon trouble started brewing at Plant B. Labour issues and production related problems surfaced as well. Earlier this month, the plant witnessed brutal violence in which a senior executive was killed and nearly 100 employees were injured. This was the worst violence that the company had seen since Suzuki began its India operations in 1983.

Due to the violence, the company declared a lockout. The move is expected to impact Maruti severely as it manufactures its blockbuster models, Swift hatchback and Dzire sedan, at the Manesar plant. The disruption in supplies of the models in the market will add to their already-long waiting list in the market. The combined backlog for the two cars is over 1 lakh units and the waiting period per model is over five months.

