Aid to workers of closed units to be extended

The West Bengal government is looking at extending financial assistance to the closed industrial units which plan to resume operations in order to boost industrial activity.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 81st annual general meeting of Indian Chamber of Commerce, Asim Dasgupta, state finance minister said, “We are looking at extending the assistance scheme given to closed units for one year to all those closed units which plan to resume operations. This facility will be provided till one year of resuming operations.” Under the present assistance scheme, the state government provides Rs 1000 per worker per month to the closed units. This scheme will now be extended to those units who plan to resume operations.

The state will give this assistance for one year after the units start operations. The minister said that last year the total disbursed amount through this scheme was Rs 36 crore. There are 334 closed units in the state according to official data. In terms of absolute numbers, this is lower than Andhra Pradesh which has 503 closed units and Maharashtra which has 1076 closed units.