Bengal jute mills, tea gardens to remain shut till lockdown
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Centre told us to let tea gardens operate, but I have spoken to people involved in the industry and they were all of the opinion that the lockdown should continue.
MAMATA BANERJEE, chief minster, West Bengal
nKOLKATA: West Bengal has decided against allowing jute mills to start operations before the nationwide lockdown ends, heedless of requests to the effect by the Centre. The decision was taken at a state government meeting on Monday to review the lockdown and was conveyed to the jute industry in the evening.
The governments of Punjab and Telangana and the Food Corporation of India had written to the Union government that a shortage of jute sacks may hit procurement of farmers’ produce and urged the Centre to request the state government to allow jute mills to function.
The Mamata Banerjee government also turned down the Centre’s request to let tea gardens resume operations before the lockdown announced by the Centre ends on April 14
Tea and jute are Bengal’s largest labour-intensive industries, with 60 jute mills in south Bengal employing nearly 200,000 people and 283 tea gardens in north Bengal employing over 350,000 permanent and casual workers.
Bengal being the hub of the jute industry, the ministry of food and public distribution urged the state government on April 3 to instruct jute mills to immediately start operations so that other states did not run short of jute bags in the procurement season.
On Monday, West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said, “We can’t let the mills operate on the basis of the letter from the food ministry. The lockdown till April 14 was announced by the home ministry and the home ministry needs to tell us that jute mills have been exempted.”
In the evening, after labour minister Malay Ghatak communicated the government’s decision to the industry, Indian Jute Mills Association’s director-general Debasish Roy sent a notice to the management of all jute mills, saying, “As per discussions held with Hon’ble minister in charge, labour, Government of West Bengal, all mills are advised to extend to lockdown till further orders are received from the government.”
On April 3, E K Majhi, additional secretary, ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution wrote to the West Bengal chief secretary that the
Punjab government and the FCI had attributed the shortage of jute sacks to the non-functioning of Bengal’s jute mills since the beginning of the 21-day lockdown and that, compounding the situation, require more bags maybe needed this year.“it is of utmost importance that jute mills immediately resume their operations for manufacturing/dispatch of jute bales to meet the requirements of the State Procurement Agencies/fci,” Majhi wrote.
“I shall, therefore, earnestly request your indulgence to direct jute mills to immediately start manufacturing/ supply of jute bales so that during the peak procurement period, procurement operations of government are not disrupted due to a shortage of jute bags,” the letter said.
On April 3, the Centre had also exempted tea gardens from the lockdown and allowed plantations with up to 50% of the workforce to resume operations.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said, “Centre told us to let tea gardens operate, but I have spoken to people involved in the industry and they were all of the opinion that the lockdown should continue. Also, the workers are scared and unwilling to join. Above all, we need to be cautious because the region that is home to the gardens has international borders with Nepal and Bhutan and state borders with Assam and Sikkim. I can’t take the risk of letting the gardens operate.”