Laying on a Conspiracy of Lay-off

The industrial scene in West Bengal today seems the murkier for affected understatements by both the Government and the industrialists. On his return from Delhi the Chief Minister, Ajoy Mukherjee, has delivered himself of the profundity that retrenchment is an all-India phenomenon. Some spokesmen of the chambers of commerce, after their talks with the labour Minister, Subodh Banerjee, have said that they are all with the Government on the policy of no retrenchment and no lay-off without prior consultations with the Government. If the Government's policy is necessarily tentative, considering its composition, business interests appear to have taken full advantage of a newspaper's gullibility to put out the view that ''the Labour Minister's statement docs not help us at all. It is not a practicable suggestion. We are where we were". More of the Labour Minister's statement in a moment.

Meantime, the Calcutta Tramways Company has given a display of commercial audacity that its 19th century counterparts in Africa might have envied.