IT’s against strike call in Bengal

We Will be open,’’ said S.K. Mitra, managing director of WEBEL, the West Bengal government’s Information Technology company, when asked about the industrial strike call by the Left trade unions . Despite his optimism, Mitra may not find helping hands around as the CITU announced that no exemption will be granted to the IT sector. Mitra may also not be the only one to be embarrassed. At stake is Chief Minister’s promise of full-fledged regulatory support for the IT industry, keeping it out of the usual hassles other industrial units face. Not many IT captains were as vocal like the WEBEL MD to talk about their contingency plan but some did point at the dichotomy between the government’s policy and its implementation that stands exposed by the strike call.

But CITU state secretary Kali Ghosh is not willing to accept what the policy document says. Talking to The Indian Express, he said: ‘‘Are IT people Raj Putras? As an industry, IT is nothing different from any other industry. The classification of IT as a ‘public utility service’ by the government has been done only in the context of Industrial Disputes Act.”