Kolkata: Raising apprehension that the BJP government would shift headquarters of four more iconic institutions of the Central government outside Kolkata, Bengal Finance minister Amit Mitra on Friday wrote his second letter to Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan urging to confirm that Kolkata-based Raw Materials Division (RMD) of SAIL will not be dismantled to avoid job loss of scores. Highlighting the "ominous pattern of removing headquarters of PSUs from Kolkata" since the BJP-government came to power at the Centre, Mitra has termed the move to be "dangerous" and provided a list of the iconic institutions whose headquarters have been shifted. In his first letter to the Union minister on June 16, Mitra had alleged that the move to dismantle the RMD is a devious intent post BJPs poll debacle and is also of undermining the iconic steel plants of Durgapur and Burnpur which would lead to job losses for scores. With no reply to his letter from Pradhan, Mitra on Friday again wrote: "I once again urge you to stop the dismantling of RMD and keep its headquarters in Kolkata. Here, I may refer to a representation sent by the workers of RMD to Chief Minister of Bengal. Alerted by this representation to the Chief Minister, I wrote to you urgently… Your confirmation that RMD will not be dismantled and headquarters will remain in Kolkata, will reassure many anxious workers and their families in the midst of this pandemic…" He also sought the Centres assurance that headquarters of other iconic institutions, including Tea Board, Damodar Valley Corporation, National Insurance Company and Calcutta Stock Exchange will not be shifted from Kolkata in future. Calcutta Stock Exchange was founded in 1908 while the Tea Board has its headquarters in Kolkata for the past 67 years. Mitra further stated that the Corporate Office of Hindustan Steel Works Construction Limited (HSCL) was shifted from Kolkata to Delhi in 2017. Similarly, Coal India shifted its subsidiary along with respective marketing and sales offices of their subsidiaries including those of Eastern Coalfields, Bharat Coking Coal, Central Coalfields, South Eastern Coalfields and Mahanadi Coalfields from Kolkata to cities in other states like Dhanbad, Bilaspur and Sambalpur in 2020. In 2018 and 2020, SBIs Central Accounts Hub was shifted to Mumbai and UBO headquarters was shifted to Delhi respectively.

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