Amit Mitra urges Centre not to shift PSUs out of Kolkata – Mint

In a letter to Dharmendra Pradhan, union minister for petroleum and natural gas and steel, Mitra said that some of the central public sector companies have shifted their corporate office, office of subsidiaries or headquarters out of Kolkata in an alarming trend.

“Ever since your government came to office in Delhi, there is an ominous pattern of removing the headquarters of public sector units from Kolkata which have been here for half a century and even a century,” Mitra charged in his letter to Pradhan. Mint has reviewed a copy of the letter.

Mitra also reiterated his earlier appeal to Pradhan not to dismantle the raw materials division of Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) in Kolkata.

An email sent to officials including secretaries of the ministry of steel and the department of public enterprises remained unanswered at the time of publishing.

Mitra expressed the apprehension that headquarters some of the iconic institutions—Tea Board, Damodar Valley Corp. and National Insurance Co.—would be moved out of Kolkata in the near future. Mitra also said that closure of Calcutta stock exchange was being planned.

The West Bengal minister sought the central government’s assurance that the headquarters of these institutions will not be moved from Kolkata.

In response to Mitra’s earlier appeal regarding SAIL’s raw material division, Dharmendra Pradhan had on Wednesday assured Mitra that there was no question of SAIL’s two steel plants in West Bengal facing any iron ore crisis due to a restructure in the company. Pradhan also assured that that there was no plan to reduce employee strength of the company and that SAIL as a responsible employer would continue to take care of its employees. Pradhan said SAIL’s steel plants in West Bengal are two of the prestigious plants in which SAIL has made large investments.