Govt hopeful of sick units’ revival

“I have talked to both the sides — the proprietors and the labour unions — of both the factories in the last one week. The observations of the meetings have been forwarded to the Labour Commissioner for his consideration. I am hopeful that both the factories can be reopened shortly,” said Bose.

Located at Dakshineshwar in North 24 Parganas,Wimco,which has been bought over by ITC Limited in 2005,produced matchsticks and shut down after the Assembly elections following months of industrial disputes.

Wellington Jute Mills,located at Rishra in Hoogly district,closed down around the same time. About 5,500 workers were employed in the two factories.

The Labour Minister said he had already held discussions with the Chief Minister,who told him to work towards reopening as many closed units as possible.

“Since the number of closed units in our state is astonishingly high,I am giving special emphasis on reopening those that stopped operations recently and have chances of survival. After these become operational,we will find ways to open the ones that have been long forgotten,” Bose said.

Reopening of thousands of closed factories and reviving sick industries was one of the main agendas of Mamata Banerjee before the elections. The agenda featured in the ‘vision document’ provided with the Trinamool Congress election manifesto. The party had promised to achieve the task within 100 days of coming to power.

Bose said he had asked his officials to prepare a status report on all closed units. “The Left Front government failed to prepare a comprehensive database on the number of closed units and the workers involved. We are trying to gauge the extent of the problem and intervene accordingly.”

According to the Department of Industrial Reconstruction,361 units,including those of state and central public-sector undertakings,are under the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction — the central agency tasked with reviving ailing companies.

Bose said the actual number of sick units was much higher as innumerable number of small and medium-sized enterprises had been shut down in the state. Labour groups put the figure at 55,000,including small units. According to Bose,about 400 major large-scale units in the state are dysfunctional at present.

Bose called up CPM leader Anadi Sahu,labour minister in the last government,to seek his co-operation. “I invited him to a meeting at Writers’ and sought his help in understanding the problems he faced in enforcing labour laws.”