The situation at the jute mill, one of India's oldest, was tense today with one company of the Rapid Action Force and local police maintaining a vigil.

West Bengal's top police official for law and order said Saturday's incident was a sudden outburst and the police is now there only as a standby.

"There is no need for imposing Section 144," inspector general Prasun Mukherjee said. The Indian Jute Mills Association has called a meeting tomorrow, but the central trade unions were quick to dismiss the industry body as toothless.

The Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) said the organised unions and the government were being bypassed in all disputes, with mills changing hands at ridiculous prices at court auctions, and then being operated for quick profits.

Mr Subrata Mukherjee, officially Intuc president, said the Left Front government must take some responsibility for not stopping the trend of "fatka" or quick profits, in which the mills are run by third parties who employ only casual labour.

"What will IJMA do? Only ten of the 55 mills are its members," Mr Mukherjee said. "The central trade unions no longer figure in any disputes, and nor does the government call any tripartite meeting".

Mr Mukherjee said the last such gruesome incident had happened in the turbulent early seventies, when a management officials was stuffed into the boiler of Krishna Glass. Coincidentally, the West Bengal government announced in bold advertisements today the reopening of Krishna Glass, which had been nationalised in 1987.

Baranagar Jute Factory, set up in 1857, had passed through several Indian owners and is now being operated by one Mr Govind Sarda. It had reopened barely a month ago, and immediate cause of the violence was the management's refusal to pay the casual workers more in return for stepping up production at one unit.

By employing casual labour, the managements avoid paying statutory dues like provident fund and ESI.

The bodies of the two officials - JP Tewari and G Ghosh- and Bhola Das, the worker who was shot dead by Tewari, were cremated today after post mortems were done. However, officials of Baranagore police station said the post mortem reports would be available much later.

At the mill itself, a deathly calm prevailed. "The situation now is such that we are mentally prepared for more trouble ahead," said a slum dweller living in the vicinity of the mill.