Bengal allows bidi factories to resume operation with 50pc workforce

Kolkata, May 11 (PTI) The West Bengal government on Monday allowed bidi factories to resume operation with 50 per cent workforce during the ongoing lockdown while strictly adhering to social distancing and health safety norms.

The labourers, involved with the industry, have been facing hardship and completely depending on the public distribution system after the bidi manufacturing units were closed due to the nationwide lockdown.

Around 20 lakh people are directly or indirectly associated with the bidi industry in the state, largely concentrated in Murshidabad district.

"It is a good move that the government has allowed bidi factories to reopen but unless public transport and train services resume, we will not able to operate properly," Sona Bidi factory owner Prasanta Mandal said from Murshidabad's Azimgunj.

He wondered how the workers and traders will reach Dhuliyan, a hub of bidi manufacturers in the district with more than 1,000 units, without resumption of local transport. Hundreds of women, who are involved in rolling bidis from home, get raw materials and send their products through aggregators.

"Availability of transport is important for the supply chain of the industry," he said, adding that liquidity is also an issue for factories due to the prolonged lockdown. Meanwhile, the Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA), a non-profit organisation representing farmers and farm workers of commercial crops across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Gujarat, on Monday urged the Centre to save their livelihoods in the COVID-19 crisis.

The organisation said demand for the crop has been sluggish due to declining volumes of cigarettes and other tobacco products due to the lockdown. Nearly, 130 million kg of flue cured tobacco worth over Rs 1,700 crore is available for sale and the auctions of the crop are moving at a snarl pace, causing quality loss.