Shalimar Paints’ second bipartite meeting with the State government remained inconclusive on Wednesday. “We met the government officials and expressed our commitment to the State of West Bengal. We will explore the feasibility of options discussed. We have agreed to reconvene at a later date,” an official spokesperson said in a cryptic statement.
Pravin Asthana, Head-Operations, Shalimar Paints, and Sanjay Majumdar, Plant Manager (HR) attended on behalf of the company. From the State government, the meeting was attended by Labour Minister Moloy Ghatak, and ministers Arup Roy and Rajib Bandopadhyay, MLAs from the district.
On Tuesday, the company said it had no money to revive its century-old unit at Howrah, near here.
ADVERTISEMENT
The company has declared a work-suspension at the unit, which is among Southeast Asia’s first paint units. It was damaged in a fire in March 2014. “The final estimates of rebuilding and restoring full-scale operations at approximately Rs.60 crore are beyond the resources of the company,” an official spokesperson said stressing the fire had completely halted production. The company claimed that it had no dispute with its workers or with the West Bengal Government and had offered to relocate the Howrah unit’s workers. “The company is suffering in equal measure due to loss of sales,” the company said.