State to help on labour issues

The winds of change in the state government's labour policy, in a bid to attract investment, was palpable at the national executive meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), today.

Responding to concerns on unproductive and unwilling workers put forward by the industry members, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya admitted that low labour productivity was an area for concern.

He cited the example of the recession-ridden tea industry and said, without a productivity norm the tea industry would not survive.

He also went on to add, some of the workers in the tea estates worked for only two hours and spent the remaining part of the day shouting slogans. Bhattacharya mentioned the contrasting China model where most of the workers were contractual labourers.

Further, he admitted that the work culture in the state must improve and workers must share problems with the management. "Without increasing productivity in the tea industry problems would not be solved" he said.

Responding to another concern on the city's traffic problem, Bhattcharya mentioned alternative modes of transport to the government buses and trams.

"We will have to change our surface transport system radically." He said, the state was contemplating introducing a mass transit system and two companies""Swiss and Japanese""were interested. Itochu had already made a presentation and the Swiss company was asked to do the same.

The chief minister shared the thrust areas for the state and said that while IT and ITES were identified as growth areas, manufacturing was also equally important for the state.

Citing examples he said, Lafarge had decided to set up a manufacturing unit in Bankura and the chief minister was also trying to attract Chinese investment for the toy park, which would be inaugurated shortly.

On the healthcare front, he said, Apollo, which already had one hospital in Kolkata, was planning to set up another in the city. Dabhol had also invested around Rs 18 crore in Jalpaiguri.

Bhattacharya requested FICCI to come forward and help the state promote itself as a gateway for south-east Asian countries.

Y K Modi, chairman FICCI said that the Chamber would help bring Malaysian companies to the state. Modi said that the state would have to chalk out strategies for developing health and tourism sectors in West Bengal.

Modi listed three suggestions, which the state government could do to woo the manufacturing sector""lowering of transaction cost, cheap and good quality power, replacement of unproductive and unwilling workers.