By IANS,
Kolkata : The meeting between representatives of Dunlop India Limited, which has issued notice for shutting down its Sahajung factory in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, and the state government Monday failed to make headway even as the government asked the company to immediately reopen the plant.
Work at tyre-maker Dunlop’s factory in Sahagunj was suspended Saturday, five months after a temporary shut-down in April.
The management of the factory put up suspension of work notice at the factory gate Friday night. About 900 workers are employed at the unit.
In the notice, the Ruia Group company said: “The management has invested a huge amount of money for the revival of the Sahagunj plant. But with the indulgence of some anti-socials, a section of recalcitrant workers resorted to disruptive activities, including vandalism.”
The management also cited other reasons like “exorbitant conversion cost, hefty increase in raw material prices without corresponding increase in tyre prices, continuous losses and cash crunch” for its inability to run the factory”.
“We have discussed at length and we have ventilated our dissatisfaction over the issuance of suspension of work notice,” state Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters after the meeting with the company director and other three representatives.
“We do not know what led the company to issue the notice. Today we requested the Dunlop representatives to withdraw the suspension of work notice and reopen the factory,” he added.
Labour Minister Purnendu Bose was also present at the meeting at the state secretariat here.
“The factory should be immediately reopened. If they do not reopen the factory tomorrow or day after tomorrow, then we will certainly look into the matter,” Chatterjee added.
However, even after the meeting with the ministers, the representatives of the Dunlop said there was a serious law and order problem to reopen the Sahagunj plant.
“Our employees have been threatened. One cannot run a factory at gun point. We have lodged FIRs for that. The ministers have asked to show the copies of the FIRs which we are going to give,” a Dunlop representative said.
Dunlop, which the Ruia group acquired in 2006, has two plants, at Ambattur near Chennai, and Sahagunj. While the Ambattur plant is operational, there has been no production in Sahagunj plant for the last ten months.