Hooghly, May 15: Even as the euphoria over the Left’s impressive showing at the polls continues, another jute mill fell victim to a labour dispute today.

The Victoria Jute Mill in Bhadreswar, about 50 km from Calcutta, today issued suspension of work notice, rendering 4,500 workers jobless. The notice, put up around 6 am while the morning shift was on, cited low productivity and mentioned that the mill was running up losses.

This is the second jute mill to shut down in a month in the district. Last month, 5,000 workers of Hastings Jute Mill in Rishra were left jobless after the management closed it down.

Victoria Jute Mill is the sixth to stop production in the state in the past few months.

Agitated mill workers assembled at its gate this morning and shouted slogans against the management. “I have been working here for years. I don’t know what will happen to my children. We will have to starve,” one of them said. The trade unions submitted a deputation to the management, warning of strong protests if the mill was not reopened.

Santoshree Chatterjee, Hooghly district unit president of Citu and new MP from Serampore, said: “This is a conspiracy on the part of the management. I shall take up the matter with labour minister Mohd Amin after he returns from New Delhi.”

Trinamul complaint

Trinamul Congress MLA Sonali Guha has lodged a complaint in Muchipara police station that 20 miscreants led by a local CPM leader, Bulu Baral, manhandled her when she stepped in to rescue her husband from a brawl.

Guha said the CPM activists summouned her husband and councillor from Ward 40, Partha Basu, around 8.20 pm to discuss bailing out a Trinamul worker. Soon the talks took the form of a brawl, forcing Guha to step in.