Meet to resolve silk unit dispute on Tuesday

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Nov. 20: The assistant labour commissioner of Malda will convene a tripartite meeting tomorrow to resolve the labour dispute at East End Silk, a private silk waste industrial unit at Narayanpur, following an instruction from the Malda district magistrate. More than 400 Citu-backed labourers, including 70 women, began a cease work at the industrial unit on 15 November. The East End Silk, it may be recalled, was inaugurated by chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a few years back. Meanwhile, the CPI-M leaders are upset with the strike called by the labourers and there is a difference of opinion among the Citu leaders on the issue as well. The proprietor of the factory is close to the CM, sources said. “I do not know what happened there. It seems that the labourers are striking unnecessarily”, said Mr Jiban Moitra, the district secretary of Malda CPI-M. On the other hand, terming the proprietor of the industrial unit a “fraud”, the Malda district president of the Citu, Mr Rupam Sen, said: “The chief minister does not know about the proprietor of the unit, Mr Mostaq Hussain, who also owns a bidi company in Murshidabad.”