Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that all jute mills in Bengal could operate with entire workforce from June 1, the announcement coming within hours of Bhaskar Khulbe, advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, writing to state chief secretary with a plea to consider resumption of operations at jute plants.

“From June 1, tea and jute industries will operate with 100 per cent workforce,” the chief minister told a news conference at Nabanna, the state secretariat.

“The central government had announced that it would help the labourers of unorganised sector financially. But I’ve heard they are not getting any money,” Mamata added, hinting that she had taken the decision keeping in mind the livelihood of over 3 lakh labourers at jute mills in Bengal.

Even as the jute industry welcomed Mamata’s decision, its stakeholders said “unprecedented” intervention from the Prime Minister’s Office had played a key role in her announcement.

The Mamata Banerjee government had earlier allowed engagement of just 50 per cent labourers at the jute mills so that social distancing could be maintained. But plant owners said full-fledged operations couldn’t be conducted with half the workforce and wanted a total rollback of the restriction.

The Rs 13,000 crore industry indirectly employs around 40 lakh people and plays an important role in Bengal’s economy.

Normally, issues related to jute production and manufacture of jute bags are dealt by the Union ministry of textiles through the Jute Commissioner’s Office, but sources said the PMO had intervened because of the extraordinary situation created by the shortfall in supply of jute bags for the packaging of food grains.

Khulbe mentioned in his letter to chief secretary Rajiva Sinha that he had spoken to Mamata herself on this issue and she had agreed to consider the request to reopen all 59 functional jute mills “with due empathy”.

In his letter, he also mentioned that if the mills weren’t reopened at the earliest, the situation would be “detrimental to the interests of jute farmers and industrial workmen in West Bengal”.

Khulbe also said the Union government would be compelled to further dilute the mandatory jute packaging act, which mandates the packing of all food grains produced across the country in jute bags.

The Centre allowed a dilution of up to 30 per cent because of unusual circumstances this year and gave green light for use of plastic bags as jute mills were not operational because of the lockdown.

“Luckily, we have been allowed to operate with full capacity. But it is very strange that the push had to come from the highest office,” said a jute mill owner who didn’t wish to be identified.

The Indian Jute Mills Association, a lobby group of jute mill owners, made multiple representations to the state government with a plea to reopen jute mills.

“Finally, the state government has understood the need… We welcome the decision. But the problem is, reverse migration has started in our industry and labourers have left for their villages. We need them back at the earliest to run the mills in fill capacity,” said a source.