Jessop factory acquisition: State govt writes to President

The state government will write to the President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to expedite giving assent to a bill cleared by the Assembly on acquisition of Jessop.

Several companies have shown interest in Jessop. The state government had tabled a Bill on the acquisition of Jessop. But the Bill had not been given assent and so the state government could not complete the acquisition process. It has also asked 460 employees to sign the office attendance register.

This shows how keen the state government is to reopen the country’s oldest engineering firm set up in 1788.

The government has lodged an FIR against Pawan Kumar Ruia due to his negligence that led to the theft of factory sheds, costly machinery and their parts.

In the past 15 days, frequent incidents of fire had taken place in the factory.

A private bus parked outside the gate number 24 of the factory was gutted. Fire also broke out and damaged a portion of the factory.

The state Fire and Emergency Services Minister Sovan Chatterjee, local MLA Bratya Basu and Tanmay Roychowdhury, Commissioner, Barrackpore Commisionarate went to the spot. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Subhankar Bhattacharya, SS CID (South) has been framed to investigate into the theft of equipment and the incidents of fire.

The SIT team went to the spot and began investigation on Friday. They interrogated four persons who were arrested from the site on Tuesday.

Local people alleged that despite repeated complaints the police did not take any action against the criminals who have unleashed a reign of terror in the area. They damaged stretches on the boundary wall of Jessop factory and removed the machinery and factory sheds which were sold in the market as iron scrap. The police are now trying to find out the route which the criminals used to enter the factory and flee with the booty.