“The state government cannot help Dunlop as it is not a sick company,” Labour Minister Mrinal Banerjee said on Friday.

After a meeting with Ruia on Wednesday, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had demanded that the government should provide loan and VAT concession to the company for reopening the unit.

Banerjee had visited the Sahagunge factory last week and said since the state government had given so many concessions to the Tatas, it should do the same for others.

“The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Partha Chatterjee, will take up the matter with Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and the labour minister,” she had said.

The labour minister, however, said the workers were apprehensive that Ruia would sell the factory land. “If he (Ruia) now sells the land with the support of a political party, we don’t know what will happen,” he said.

Ruia has alleged that the company did not get the incentive package the state government had promised, sources said.