 "Low demand for jute leads to trade union unrest in jute mills")
News of the brutal killing of H K Maheshwari, 68-year-old CEO of North Brook Jute Mill has sent shivers through the business community in Kolkata, with most chambers today condemning the incident. Maheshwari and other officers were scheduled to meet the representatives of nine trade unions active at the jute mill on Sunday to reduce working days of the mill. The options were to run the plant three days a week or five hours a day.
However, the owners wanted to run the mill at least five days a week.
At the crux of the problem in jute mills lies the little demand for jute in the national markets, as plastic bags fast replace the packaging material.
The jute industry is currently starved of supply of orders, and till May, jute bag orders had virtually become zero.
“Between February and May 2014, the previous UPA 2 government had drastically reduced orders for supply of jute bags. As a result, most mills were planning to resort to cut in shifts and production. North Brook was one of those mills when the attack took place,” said Sanjay Kajaria.
Earlier, the Jute Packaging Material Act (JPMA) gave jute mills a total monopoly over packaging of sugar and foodgrains. However, during the previous UP regime, the government had decided to phase out of the Act.
In 2012-13 and 2013-14 use of jute bags as per the JPMA was reduced by 10 per cent and 80 per cent in case of food grain and sugar packing.
As the sugar industry was allowed to pack eighty percent of its requirement in non-jute products, the jute industry lost around Rs 1000crore of business in 2013-14, according to Kajaria former chairman of Indian Jute Mills Association.
Last year, the government decided to purchase seven lakh bales of plastic bags instead of jute bags for packaging. However, last year, the government used only five lakh bales of plastic bags.
The remaining amount was kept rotting in the warehouse. The government had planned to reuse the plastic bags during the current season creating an order crisis in the jute industry. Therefore the industry was starved off orders for four months from February to May 2014.
“Despite being the largest jute growing and jute bag manufacturing state, West Bengal does not procure jute bags. Neither does it have a jute bag procuring policy. Low government orders and superficially created overestimation and deliberate move to accommodate polluting plastic bags for packing food grain and sugar had ruined the jute industry for the past few years,” said Kajaria. Ironically, opening closed factories topped the agenda of the present government. Finance minister Amit Mitra had said there would be a plan to open about 58,000 closed factories that had about 44,000 acres locked within.
“The present problem of the workers in the jute sector lies with vital uncertainty of jobs. For the last couple of months, jute mills are running low in production, which shrunk the incomes of daily wage earners to a great extent,” said leader of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
Timeline:
1. 29 Jun 2001, Baranagar, two executives of Barangar Jute Mill lynched to death
2. 16 May 2002, Kolkata, Chief Personnel Officer of Dalhousie Jute Mill killed
3. 8 October 2002, Rishra, Hastings Jute Mills labour officer killed
4.15 May 2008, Titagarh, Personnel Manger of Loomtex Jute Mill lynched to death
5 15 July 2011, Chandanagore, Labour officer of Gondolpara Jute Mill murdered
6. 15 May 2014, Bhadreswar, CEO of North Brook Jute Mills lynched to death