Pawan Ruia group seeks West Bengal govt's nod to close down Jessop

This, as the company is not even generating revenues to pay wage bill

At a time when the Kolkata-based Pawan Kumar Ruia group was contesting the Dunlop winding up order in the Supreme Court, it may be the end of road for its another group firm, Jessop & Co.

The group has written to the West Bengal government, seeking permission for shutting down wagon maker Jessop & Co, which, incidentally, is also the country’s oldest engineering company set up in 1788.

“We wanted to either link the wages to productivity or to rationalise the workforce, as Jessop was not even generating the revenues to pay the wage bill. However, the state government indicated we should rather close down the plant. We have accepted that proposal and written to the state labour minister on this,” a group official said.

Jessop has about 600 employees at its 63-acre DumDum plant and the monthly wage bill comes to about Rs 2 crore.   

Jessop & Co, which manufactures wagons, coaches and cranes, has two plants in the state. It was a public sector entity with the government of India taking management control in 1958. As it turned into a loss-making venture, the government divested its stake and Ruia took over the company in 2003. Although the group had turned it into a profitable venture after taking over, the company was facing labour issues.

Recently, the company had filed a series of FIRs against workers for manhandling of management staff and theft of scrap.  

The flagship company of the group, Dunlop, is also shut for over a year now.

The Calcutta high court had ordered winding up of the tyre maker earlier in the year following petitions from some of its creditors. The Supreme Court, however, later stayed the order.