The crisis in the jute industry in West Bengal is making Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from the State jittery. With nearly a dozen of jute mills closed and thousands of workers out of work, BJP MP Arjun Singh on Wednesday threatened to launch a movement against the Jute Commissioner Office (JCO) over the unavailability of raw material and the price fixed on raw jute.
Mr. Singh, who represents Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency, where more than 20 jute mills are located, said that he on December 13 last year along with BJP MP Locket Chatterjee met the JCO officials as well as the Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal but the demands to raise the price of raw jute had fallen on deaf ears.
Mr. Singh said that if the crisis was not averted, then 10 more mills will close and thousands of workers of the State will be out of work. The BJP MP accused that the Jute Commissioner was trying to act on behalf of the plastic lobby and trying to choke the jute industry that provided livelihood to two crore people, including mill workers and jute farmers. The MP said that he had tried to impress upon Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal and had written a letter to him but said that he feels that the Union Minister was being “misguided”.
The price of raw Jute is fixed by the JCO and at present, it is Rs 6,500 per quintal. About 90 % of the finished products are bought by the Centre for packaging food grains and agricultural produce. However, the jute mills in the State are closing down with the mill managements saying that they were facing a shortage of raw materials. Mr . Singh said that even the minutes of the meeting on December 13 were not made public and threatened to launch a sustained movement if the price of raw jute was not revised.
The BJP MP, who is also the vice president of West Bengal BJP unit, sought intervention from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the crisis and urged all the trade unions to hit the streets in protest against the policies that is resulting in the closure of the jute mills.
Meanwhile, Jute Commissioner Moloy Chakraborty has told journalists recently that JCO continues to safeguard farmers’ interests but cannot allow “illegitimate” gains for a section of players in the industry by revising the price cap.
The trade union wing of State’s ruling Trinamool Congress (INTTUC Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress) has announced a protest meeting on May 4 in front of Jute Commissioner Office.
“INTTUC West Bengal is organising a protest meeting on behalf of jute workers in front of the Jute Commissioner Office on May 4. Conspiracies and designs of the Union government to destroy Bengal’s jute industry will be resisted tooth and nail,” Ritabrata Banerjee, president of INTTUC said on social media.
Earlier this month, Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and the Indian Jute Mill Association ( IJMA), had written letters to officials at the Centre including Union Minister of Textiles Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar on the matter. The communications have also sought to review the price of raw jute.
There are about 60 jute mills in the State and most of them are located in Hooghly district and the Barrackpore subdivision of North 24 Parganas district, on the two banks of river Hooghly.
