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Days after writing a letter to Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urging him not to shift the raw materials division (RMD) of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) from Kolkata, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Friday slammed Pradhan as he “chose not to address” important questions on the issue.
On Friday, he said, “Since the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre there is an ominous pattern of removing the headquarters of PSUs from Kolkata that has been here for half a century and even a century. While the Tea Board has been here for about 67 years, the stock exchange was established in 1908.”
Amit Mitra Writes To Union Steel Min
The WB FM stated that he had written another letter to Pradhan about the RMD and also expressed concern about the possible relocation of four more Central Government offices based, that is, Tea Board, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), National Insurance Company, and Calcutta Stock Exchange. On Tuesday, Amit Mitra had requested the Union Minister not to shift the RMD of SAIL from Kolkata as the move will result in job loss for many. The letter came after the SAIL decided to dissolve the RMD and shift its headquarter from Kolkata to Rourkela and Bokaro reportedly due to no captives mines and Kolkata headquarter being of no use.
In the letter, he had written, “I am shocked to learn from the media that the RMD, headquartered in Kolkata, is being dismantled. This will result in the job loss of scores of contractual employees in the midst of the pandemic, literally outing them in harm’s way. And over 100 permanent employees will face destabilization of their families, their spouses, and their children, with the imminent transfer, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mitra had further explained that the open market price for raw materials is Rs 9,500 a tonne while RMD was supplying the same to Bengal plants at Rs 650. This will further result in plants becoming ‘inefficient, unprofitable, and unviable’. The Bengal FM also claimed that the plants of Durgapur and Burnpur brought a profit of Rs 1,486 crores as per the latest data.
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