Before he became West Bengal?s labour minister, Purnendu Bose spearheaded workers? movements for many years. He came to the limelight after he led the movement at Kanoria Jute Mills in 1994. In the last five months of the new government, most of the units that have reopened are jute mills and Kanoria is one of them. Excerpts from an interview with Fe?s Rohit Khanna:

There has not been significant investment in the last five months in West Bengal. What are the stumbling blocks?

Wait for six months and you will see things change. This is a myth that the state is not industry friendly. Take the case of tourism in Darjeeling. It was suffering a lot even a few months back. Look how Mamata Banerjee is trying to solve the Darjeeling issue. I don?t believe that flight of industry from Bengal happened only due to labour unrest. There are cases of management failure, money siphoning and theft. We are industry friendly and we don?t want enmity with industrialists. We can even go out of the way to set up an industry. But they have to show us that they are serious about industrialisation in the state.

What about the closed units in the state?

In the last five months we have opened almost 30 closed units, many of them are in jute sector. Apart from Kanoria Jute Mill, Wellington Jute Mill, a unit of Hooghly Jute mill, and another mill in Kharda have reopened. A jute machine manufacturing unit called Lagan Jute has reopened. Matchstick manufacturing unit Wimco is trying to modernise their factory. All put together, almost 25,000 workers got back their jobs after the mills reopened.

A lot of land is locked inside the closed units. They can be of use in a land-scarce state.

Absolutely. According to an estimate, almost 41,000 acres are locked inside closed units. We are trying to unlock the land. We have decided that land acquired for industry can only be used for industrialisation and no other purpose. There are many cases where land was not used even after allotment.

Insurgency is a factor at times…

There are industries which invent reasons like Maoist threat or financial crisis to justify their inaction. What happened to the Mahabharat Motors factory? Now is the time for them to answer for their inactivity. We will re-acquire the land if an industrialist sits on it for five years.

What about companies like Dunlop which have frequent work suspensions?

Dunlop can be revived, but for that the industrialist needs a positive attitude. We have asked for a detailed report from Dunlop authorities about their plans to run the factory. They have proposed a 50-mw power project at the premises. We will allow them to go for diversification, but they will have to restart the Sahaganj unit before that. We have also clarified that no real estate project will be allowed in the premises. Workers are not getting wages that is why they are not allowing them to take out raw material. The Ruia Group is asking for loans from the state government. Why can?t they invest in their own company? We can give them extension under relief undertaking. We can try to help them if banks are declining to lend them. But we cannot accept the fact that they will sit on money and sell assets of the factories.