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WB Govt. allows full workforce at Jute Mills within hours of PMO's Letter
A letter from the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning played a key role in persuading West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to let jute mills in the state operate with a full workforce from June 1.
Banerjee made the announcement around 5 pm on Friday afternoon, hours after Bhaskar Khulbe, advisor to PM Modi, shot the letter to chief secretary Rajiva Sinha. HT is aware of the contents of the letter.
“I would request you to kindly consider assisting the jute mills in reaching the assured production of 10,000 bales per day as early as possible and definitely by June 15. We shall appreciate your feedback by June 4 to enable us to further review the matter on June 8,” said the letter. State government officials did not want to comment on the letter.
Since April, the Centre has been urging the Bengal government to direct jute mills to resume operation in view of the shortage in supply of packaging materials. In an earlier letter, the Centre said, “Procurement operations of foodgrain, for which the availability of packaging material like jute bales are immensely required by major procuring states like Punjab, Harayana, Uttar Pradesh and Madya Pradesh where procurement operations will begin from April and peak season is for only two-three weeks only.”
The letter said that the inability of the jute mills to meet the requirement would not only be detrimental to the interest of jute farmers and industrial workers in Bengal but also dilute the purpose behind mandatory use of jute which is environment friendly.
The government’s decision to allow mills to operate with a full workforce was welcomed by the industry. “We welcome the development. There is a huge scarcity of jute bags in several states. It is good that Mamata Banerjee took the decision,” said R K Poddar, a senior IJMA member.
Incidentally, the jute industry has suffered a nationwide loss of Rs 1,250 crore during the lockdown.
