4,500 people get back jobs as Angus Jute Mill reopens

Angus Jute Mill reopened on Thursday morning after remaining close for around two months. 

The jute mill, situated at Bhadreswar in Hooghly, is one of the main factories in the area on which the economy is highly dependable. 

Around 4,500 people work in the mill. It was closed soon after Durga Puja following differences of opinion between the labourers and mill authorities. 

Several meetings were held to short out the issues, but the mill authorities were not ready to accept some proposals of the labourers, sources said. The labourers had also made their stand clear that it would be difficult to work if their demands were not met. 

Finally, the mill authorities had put up a suspension of work notice. It had led to despair of the workers and their family members. 

On February 2, Labour Minister Malay Ghatak held a tripartite meeting in which both the representatives of the labourers and the mill authorities were present. 

The problems were shorted out following the hour-long discussions and it was decided to reopen the mill on February 4. On Thursday, around 40 workers of the maintenance department joined the work. But most of the workers went to the mill. 

Jogesh Shaw, a worker of the mill, said around 30,000 people were depending on the mill. “We always want that the factory to runs smoothly,” he said, adding that besides workers of the mill, shopkeepers in the area too incur heavy losses when the factory remain close as most of their customers work in the jute mill. Thus, the economy of the entire area gets affected if the factory remains closed. He also thanked the state government for its interference that helped to reopen the mill. “I expect that other jute mills which are close, mainly in North 24-Parganas and Howrah, will open soon,” he said.