Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, while presenting the Interim Budget, urged the corporate sector not to retrench employees. However, in the present economic meltdown, industrialists are shutting units or trying to extract maximum output from a minimum work force, laying off employees. According to government figures, about 40,000 units have closed during the past one year, rendering over 300,000 workers jobless. In this atmosphere, an effective remedy is ignored. Now, in Maharashtra at least, all efforts need to concentrate on ensuring the setting up of special economic zone projects, which, according to the state government, can provide jobs to around 68 lakh people. Instead of retaining jobs through salary cuts, emphasis should be on generating new job opportunities by completing various industrial projects at the earliest. This would benefit Maharashtra and other states in the long run.
Neeta Iyer, Malad, Mumbai