BJP MP targets Union Textile Minister on Bengal jute crisis, threatens to launch movement

The crisis in the jute industry in West Bengal is making Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from the State jittery. With nearly a dozen of jute mills closed and thousands of workers out of work, BJP MP Arjun Singh on Wednesday threatened to launch a movement against the Jute Commissioner Office over the unavailability of raw material and the price fixed on raw jute. Mr. Singh, who represents Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency, where more than 20 jute mills are located, said that he on December 13 last year along with BJP MP Locket Chatterjee met the JCO officials as well as the Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal but the demands to raise the price of raw jute had fallen on deaf ears. The BJP MP, who is also the vice president of West Bengal BJP unit, sought intervention from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the crisis and urged all the trade unions to hit the streets in protest against the policies that is resulting in the closure of the jute mills. Earlier this month, Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and the Indian Jute Mill Association, had written letters to officials at the Centre including Union Minister of Textiles Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar on the matter.