Kolkata, 01 January (H.S.) :

Politics has intensified over the deepening crisis in West Bengal’s jute industry on the very first day of the new year. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and state president of the INTTUC, Ritabrata Banerjee, has written a detailed letter to Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh, expressing serious concern over the present condition and future of the sector.

In the two-page letter, Banerjee has highlighted the problems facing the jute industry and also offered step-by-step suggestions to pull it out of the crisis. He said that a steady reduction in orders for jute sacks from the central government has severely affected production in jute mills across the state. As a result, several mills located along both banks of the Ganga in the Howrah, Hooghly, and Barrackpore industrial belts have begun issuing notices of work suspension. In many mills, the number of working days has been reduced to 6 or even 5 days a week.

The Bally Jute Mill in Howrah and several factories in Hooghly have already cut down working days. The Northbrook Jute Mill in Champdani had shut down completely and is now preparing to reopen from Monday following the intervention of local Trinamool MLA Arindam Guin. However, it remains unclear how many days a week the mill will operate.

Sources said that on the same day Banerjee’s letter reached the Union minister, a meeting was underway at the Angus Jute Mill in Bhadreswar to discuss reducing working days, reflecting the seriousness of the situation.

Trinamool leaders have alleged that the crisis in the jute industry is the result of central government policies and pressure from the synthetic packaging lobby, which they claim operates from Gujarat and Maharashtra. According to them, the fall in orders has hit production, and even the jute sacks that are being manufactured are lying unsold in warehouses. Party leaders warned that storage capacity is limited and if the situation continues, more mills could shut down in the coming days. They fear this could also have law and order implications ahead of the elections.

The impact of the crisis is not limited to jute mills alone but has directly affected jute farmers as well. Jute mill areas are home to a large Hindi-speaking population, with both Hindu and Muslim workers employed in the sector. Citing the risk of social tension in these regions, the Trinamool leadership has described the situation as extremely sensitive. In his letter, Banerjee termed the crisis an economic and social emergency.

At the same time, questions are also being raised within the Trinamool Congress over the role of the state labour department in handling the situation. It is noteworthy that the jute industry in West Bengal has been grappling with structural problems for decades. A large number of mills have already shut down, and most of the remaining units now depend on contractual labour, with permanent employment almost disappearing.

Meanwhile, former Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh has also weighed in on the issue. Singh, who has strong links with the mill belts, said he had written to both the central and state governments about the crisis a month ago. He claimed that the current situation has been aggravated by the state government’s storage policy.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh