December 28, 2017
Arpita Ghosh speaks on the issue of closure of GI Press units
FULL TRANSCRIPT
The Union Cabinet took a decision to wind-up most of the GI Press units retaining only 5 units out of 17. This was done through the Cabinet meeting dated 20 September, 2017 in the pretext of rationalisation/merger. The Cabinet, in taking this decision, ignored the recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs as evidenced from the 18th report placed in Parliament on August 10, 2017.
This decision has had a huge impact on the employees and workers of GI Press. These employees and workers have been facing attack on their livelihood for the last 30 years or so. The parliamentary standing committee had recommended that all 17 units of the GI Press be continued. It had recommended that modern infrastructure, advanced machinery and increased manpower be given to these GI Units in its 12th report of 2016.
At present all units have a good number of pending jobs which can be done easily if the supply chain is maintained properly for achieving optimum productivity. Because of this decision, only one GI Press office will be retained out of the four offices in West Bengal. West Bengal will lose jobs and unemployed youths will suffer because of this decision.
We demand that the Union Cabinet to reconsider its decision and implement the recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee in its 12th report
