Jute Commissioner to launch crackdown on Bengal mills

In the wake of the murder of the CEO of North Brook jute mill last week, the office of the Jute Commissioner has decided to launch a crackdown on mills over alleged wrongdoings.
"We have initiated investigation into the North Brook jute mill incident in specific and 10-odd other jute mills, as there are numerous allegations of wrongdoings there," Jute Commissioner Subrata Gupta told PTI.
He said these mills had secured order to the tune of 70-75 per cent from the government.
"We will take stern action including a ban on a jute mill from getting order from the government, if found guilty," Gupta said.

Official sources said there had been allegations over jute mills not producing jute sacking themselves, but buying them cheap from the open market and even importing them from Bangladesh to supply to the government.
The Indian Jute Mills Association claimed that lack of order and piling of stocks had led to labour unrest which resulted in the killing of the CEO of North Brook jute mill H K Maheswari.
Gupta, however, acknowledged that there had been some decline in the government order in the previous fiscal, but argued that such things were common in view of the cyclic nature of any commodity including jute.

He said that in 2005-06, the government order for BT Will sacking was 14.16 lakh bales which had jumped to 23.44 lakh bales in 2013-14 despite dilution in mandatory packaging order.