THOUSANDS of workers in Durgapur-Asansol industrial belt blocked the National Highway on July 7, protesting against successive closure of factories, retrenchment and forced ouster of workers from factories by the ruling party.

This steel-coal-power-metal industry belt is suffering from unprecedented crisis for the last four years. Many factories have been closed - some of them succumbing to extortion by the TMC mafia gangs. Even larger units are facing acute crisis. The latest victim is the prestigious Durgapur Power Limited; its coke oven plant has been shut down. In coal mines, the privatisation drive has taken its toll and illegal mining has reached to an unprecedented scale. Huge amounts of this natural resource are being stolen every day with the active connivance of the ruling party and the police administration. The central government has not bothered to reopen the closed public sector fertiliser unit in Durgapur even though some of such factories are being revived in other parts of the country.

Apart from this, thousands of workers were forced out of their units for political reasons. TMC has forced managements to retrench casual and contract workers or simply thrashed them out from factories. In Durgapur Steel Plant, one of the largest public sector factories in the state, nearly 3500 workers were ousted. Hundreds of them were working there as non-permanent workers for nearly two and half decades.

Seething workers joined the protest demonstration in Durgapur. Nearly 20 thousand workers and their family members converged near Gandhi More in Durgapur. The rally was so huge that it spontaneously spilled over to the NH 2. There was huge presence of police too. They erected barriers to restrain the workers. The police began to chase away the workers and charged them with lathis. 20 persons were injured including 11 women. But the workers pushed away the police barricades. The National Highway was blocked for an hour. Protest meeting was held on the highway.

Shyamal Chakra borty , CITU state president congratulated  the workers for their strong protest. Dipak Dasgupta, CITU state general secretary, sharply criticised the administration for anarchy in the industrial belt. Among others, CITU leader Bangsha Gopal Chowdhury, AIKS leaders, Amal Halder and Achintya Mallick addressed the gathering.

The state administration responsed the next day. Police filed cases against CITU leaders and on about two thousand people under non-bailable sections. Cases were filed against Shyamal Chakraborty, Dipak Dasgupta too.