Thousands return to work in North Brook Jute Mill

Thousands of people have got back their means of livelihood with the decision of the North Brook Jute Mill authority’s decision to reopen the factory in Hooghly.

Around 2700 workers got back their jobs as the factory opened on Tuesday morning, following a tripartite meeting with the state labour department officials, mill authorities and representatives of the workers’ union. The mill was closed on January 21 following labour unrest and shortage in supply of raw materials.

On Tuesday morning, some labourers had initiated the work to make all the units of the factory ready to function after more than three months. The workers had been waiting for the day for the factory to reopen. They came to know four days ago that there was some possibility to come to a decision to reopen the factory on Monday’s tripartite meeting. As a result, the workers who had gone back to their villages in Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand also started returning to join their work.

It may be mentioned that some closed jute mills reopened in Howrah and thousands of people had got back their work.

Balaram Manna, a jute mill worker, said the economy of an area is dependent on normal functioning of such a huge factory, where thousands of people work. Besides the mill workers, many people set up shops and run eateries in the surrounding area. Their business also gets affected badly if a factory remains close for so many months.

Most shops near the jute mill also remained close for the past three months. Owners of some of those shops were found cleaning their shops after knowing that the factory has reopened.

The residents of the area had requested the nominees of all political parties to look in to the matter to reopen the factory as early as possible. The reopening of the factory has also given relief to the candidates as it could have turned into a major local issue ahead of the Assembly election, which is scheduled to take place on April 30 in Hooghly.