Thaindian News

Sahaganj (West Bengal), Dec 3 (IANS) Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Wednesday said that her party would lay an indefinite siege in front of Dunlop India’s factory here, demanding immediate reopening of the tyre manufacturing facility in Hooghly district.”We demand the factory be reopened immediately through a tripartite agreement among the state government, factory owner and the factory workers,” Banerjee told a public gathering here, about 50 km from capital Kolkata.

“Trinamool Congress workers will lay a siege at the factory site if the management does not resume production in the factory unit,” she said.

Blaming the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led state government, Banerjee said: “I urge all workers to fight unitedly against the conspiracy of the company management. The workers should also keep a tab on the situation so that they (management officials) can’t sell off the machineries from the factory.”

Citing lack of demand due to the global economic slowdown, the West Bengal-based tyre manufacturing firm Dunlop Tyres authorities had suspended production in Sahaganj unit Nov 17.

Last Sunday, the company declared suspension of work in the factory, throwing into uncertainty the future of the unit’s 1,202 workers.

The company’s decision met with angry response from the workers, who staged a demonstration at the factory gate.

“If the company management thinks they will stop production at Sahaganj unit, they’ve to reimburse all dues and will also have to distribute the money, which they receive after selling off the property, among the workers,” she added.

After a five-year closure, Dunlop Tyres had resumed its commercial production at the factory in Jan 14 last year.

The company was bought over by Kolkata-based businessman Ruia from Manohar Rajaram Chhabria’s family in late 2005.

The company has a full capacity of 130 tonnes of production a day.