Bengal to include DPL as subsidiary

In a bid to revive Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL), the state government has taken a decision to include it as its subsidiary under the West Bengal State Electricity Board. The decision has been taken in the State Cabinet meeting.

It may be mentioned that the State Government had engaged a Group of Ministers (GoM) ­— Partha Chatterjee, Amit Mitra, Malay Ghatak, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and Arrop Biswas — to assess and recommend steps that are necessary for the revival of DPL.

The GoM placed its observation and recommendations before the state government, based on which the decision has been taken. The thermal power generation station, which has eight units, continues to have a capacity of generating 650 MW power. Five of those units are non-functional, two function properly and one requires attention for better function. The step would help in checking the accumulated loss.

However, the name of the company is supposed to stay and will continue to function as a state government utility. Moreover, 3000 employees, including the contractual ones, will continue to work as it is. It was assessed that the step will ensure the revival of DPL.

ডিপিএল সম্পূর্ণ অধিগ্রহণ রাজ্যের, সিদ্ধান্ত মন্ত্রীসভার

দুর্গাপুর প্রোজেক্টস লিমিটেড (ডিপিএল) পুরোপুরি অধিগ্রহণ করছে রাজ্য সরকার। রাজ্য মন্ত্রীসভা এই সিদ্ধান্ত নিয়েছে।

শিক্ষামন্ত্রী মন্ত্রীসভার বৈঠক শেষে বলেন, ডিপিএল-এর পুনরুজ্জীবনের জন্য মুখ্যমন্ত্রী সচেষ্ট ছিলেন। তিনি সুপারিশ গ্রহনের জন্য মন্ত্রীগোষ্ঠী তৈরি করেন।

এখন এই সংস্থায় যারা কাজ করেন, তাঁদের বহাল রাখার সুপারিশ করেছে মন্ত্রীগোষ্ঠী। এই সুপারিশ গৃহীত হয়েছে।

সিদ্ধান্ত হয়েছে এই সংস্থাটিকে পুরোপুরি অধিগ্রহণ করবে রাজ্য সরকার। সমস্ত সম্পদ এবং মানবসম্পদ সরকারের কাছে হস্তান্তরিত হবে। চুক্তিভিত্তিক ও স্থায়ী মিলিয়ে এখন ডিপিএল-এর কর্মী সংখ্যা ৩০০০। কাউকে ছাঁটাই করা হবে না।

WB Govt announces loan for workers of closed tea gardens

The state government on Tuesday announced soft loan to be provided to the planters of closed and sick tea gardens of North Bengal from the Rs 100 crore special corpus fund for tea industry.

The decision came after state labour minister Malay Ghatak held few rounds of meetings with the tea planters, trade union leaders and the officials of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts here at Uttar Kanya.

State food minister Jyotipriya Mullick also attended the meeting. Later, speaking to reporters, Mr Ghatak said, “The loan at low interest rate would be provided to the owners of sick and closed tea gardens to be used for the welfare of workers.”

The minister said the condition to get the loan is that the planters should use the loan only to carry out workers’ welfare activities.

He also informed that the state government is working to extend the National Food Security Act to the tea gardens by January 1, 2016. Under the act, the beneficiaries would get subsidized ration. The act was implemented in the state from September.