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Kanpur industrial giant goes down as JK Jute Mill is sealed
The JK Jute Mill, a symbol of Kanpur’s industrial pride for more than seven decades, was sealed for defaulting on wage payments of workers.
The JK Jute Mill, a symbol of Kanpur’s industrial pride for more than seven decades, was sealed on Wednesday for defaulting on wage payments of workers.
The district authorities locked the mill after the labour commissioner issued a recovery certificate (RC) for Rs 30 lakh – the amount of unpaid dues of the workers.
Also, since the mill hasn’t paid contribution of Rs 1.17 crore towards provident fund (PF) of the employees, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has seized three bank accounts of mill for recovery of dues.
“The action has been initiated to expedite the payments to the PF accounts,” said AK Shukla, assistant commissioner, EPFO.
Set up in 1929, JK Jute Mill has been mired in litigations since 1980. It resumed operations in January 2009 after a period of 20 years.
The mill is closed for the last three years and hasn’t cleared the wages of the workers, who filed a case before the labour commissioner. None of the representatives of the company appeared before the labour court whenever the case was heard.
The court initiated attachment proceedings against the mill to clear the workers’ wages.
“They (the mill) have 15 days’ time to pay the wages and avoid auction,” said Vijay Yadav, tehsildar.
The JK Jute Mill management has, meanwhile, accused labour unions for forcing closure of the mills.
However, trade union leader Arvind Raj Swaroop has blamed the “neo-liberal economic policies” and the selling spree of the industrial units to appease foreign investors as the reason for the mills’ bad state. “This has not only created large-scale unemployment in the city but discouraged new entrepreneurs,” he said.
Chhotey Bhai Narona, a social activist, said that most of the local industrialists knew “how to earn money, but not produce. They got big industries, owned by the Britishers, at throwaway prices, but did not take serious interest in running them. This led to closure of all big industries gradually within a span of 20 years.”
The JK Jute mill is the fifth mill run by the JK Group of Industries in the city to be closed down. Prior to it, four other mills, including JK Cotton, JK Synthetic, JK Rayon and JK Iron and Steel mills were closed -- during 1990 to 2000 -- due to various reasons.
Other mills of the city that were closed down included Swadeshi Cotton Mill, Atherton Mill, Muir Mill, Laxmiratan Cotton Mill, Victoria Mill, Lal Imli, two units of Elgin Mill run by the British India Corporation (BIC) and Tannery and Footwear Corporation.
