Cachar Paper Mill crisis

Gogoi to take up issue with Governor, NCHAC

By our Staff ReporterGUWAHATI, June 28: Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will initiate discussion with the Governor and the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) soon to mitigate the crisis being faced by the Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram due to shortage of raw materials. An assurance in this regard has been given by the Chief Minister to the employees’ and officers’ associations of the mill who met Gogoi here today.NC Hills is the major source of green bamboo used in the mill as raw materials. A discussion was held with the Chief Minister at his office chamber at the State Secretariat here today on the pathetic plight of the mill, said Lalit Raj, general secretary of the Cachar Paper Project Workers’ and Employees’ Union (CPPWEU), while talking to The Sentinel.The meeting was attended by Excise and Border Area Development Minister Gautam Roy, Algapur MLA Rahul Roy, Parliamentary Secretary in-charge of Finance Ajit Singh and Deputy General Manger (Forest) of the Paper Mill HN Baruah. CPPWEU president Prasanta Ranjan Deb, its vice-president Ranadhir Deb, Cachar Paper Mill Officers’ and Supervisors’ Association vice-president Ashis Kumar Mazumdar and its general secretary Dipak Chandra Nath were also present at the meeting.Both the unions, in a joint memorandum, informed Gogoi that though the NCHAC had entered into an agreement with the Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) on October 11, 2006 to supply 1.80 lakh metric tonnes of bamboo to the mill annually, it failed to fulfil the agreement due to “horse-trading” by a contractor — RS Gandhi — who took NC Hills forest on lease for 20 years.The Chief Minister has taken the matter very seriously and suggested to the mill authorities to quash the agreement with the erstwhile Congress-led NCHAC, if necessary, said the union leaders. The union representatives attributed various reasons to the short supply of raw materials, and some of the reasons are militancy, non-availability of railway rakes, interference of “influential persons” and poor road connectivity.The Chief Minister assured the delegation of taking up the matter with the NF Railway authorities so as to ensure availability of railway rakes for smooth supply of bamboo from NC Hills, the union sources said. Apart from procuring bamboo from Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya, the Chief Minister suggested the mill authorities to utilize waste wood as an alternative to bamboo.Though the production of the mill resumed on June 25, only one of the two units of the mill is operational causing a loss to the tune of Rs 20 lakh a day, union sources said. The capacity of the mill is around 300 metric tonnes a day (150MTX2). It is hard to run the mill in full capacity unless supply of bamboo from the NC Hills is resumed, the unions told Gogoi. The Chief Minister assured the delegation of visiting the mill very soon. source: sentinel assam