Skip to content Skip to navigation

Assam paper mills under threat of closure

With an idea to get rapid development of the Northeastern region, the Union government constituted a separate directorate, namely, the Directorate of North Eastern Region (DoNER), which has now turned to ‘do nothing in entire region’. This can be judged by the activities going on in the two major paper mills in the state of Assam, which are facing a threat of closure at any time. These paper mills, the units of Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd, the Nagaon Paper Mills, Jagiroad in Morigaon district and the Cachar Paper Mill, in Panchgram of Barak valley, are suffering from acute shortage of raw materials for several years. The production in both mills have been badly affected and workers have to lose their livelihood due to frequent closure of mills. Sometimes, these mills do not get sufficient bamboos to store in and sufficient coal to continue production. The workers’ unions have time to time informed the state and Union governments about these problems, but the situation has not improved. It seems that the DoNER has no role to help these mills, which provide employment to thousands of local people.

Till the year 2008-09, the HPCL was paying dividend to the state exchequer. Gregarious flowering of bamboo coupled with transportation bottleneck caused serious setback to the Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram. Nagaon Paper Mill has also to face the shortage of bamboo. The prices of main fibrous raw material shoot up to an unmanageable level and as a result of that the cost of finished products have increased manifold. The sub-optimal and irregular operation have affected the machineries, product cost and quality. The variable cost and the fixed cost in terms of per ton of finished product is more than the sale price. The working capital has exhausted and depends only on bank loan or cash credit. Every supplier is to get their outstanding. They are no more interested to invest further. The suppliers never allow the paper mills to build up stock on the ground they are to receive huge outstanding. The suppliers are taking advantages of fund crisis. Despite of all these odds, the two mills had produced more than two lakhs of finished product per year.

Both mills have to face non-cooperation from the Mizoram government, Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao Autonomous Councils, in respect of supply of bamboo to them. Transportation bottle-neck for Cachar Paper Mill and non-completion of modernization and technical up-gradation project (MTUP) and credit purchases of raw materials at higher rates are the other problems faced by the mills. Since the payments against the orders are received in advance the paper has to be sold at discounted rates.

A logistical constraint incurs an additional cost of rupees six to seven thousand per metric ton on inbound and outbound material for Cachar Paper Mill and about rupees three thousand for Nagaon Paper Mill, according to a study report  of Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (DRPSCI).

Despite severe crisis the HPCL has to pay hard cash to the state exchequer. Over and above these payments, huge amount is contributed as royalty on bamboo, the HPCL has also to take burden of corporate social responsibilities. It is providing drinking water, building schools and roads, extending health services to the nearby ones, job oriented training to the eligible boys and girls, providing study facility at Kendriya Vidyalaya of the locality, employment to thousands of daily wage earners, training internship facility to the technical management students. About eighty percent of the regular employees are from the locality.

 

Author info

Daya Nath Singh's picture

Journalist; Guwahati Press Club office Secretary

Comments

ripan's picture

I am just looking forward if anyone have any better idea to bring the nagaon paper mill back on its track would be very helpful for entire region. The paper mill was the feeder as well as the feeding ground for many families within and outside that region as a job provider and me to one of them. So, everyone is heartily welcome for their suggestion.

Pages

Add new comment

Random Stories

Guwahati floating in rainwaters

4 Jun 2010 - 8:53pm | editor
The northeastern premier city of Guwahati has come under artificial flood following a heavy downpour that lashed the city for several hours on Thursday. The rainwaters in many parts of the city are...

Flood hits Dhemaji as Jiadhal breaches embankment

28 May 2008 - 6:19pm | editor
The first wave of flood waters are surging in Upper Assam's Dhemaji district affecting hundreds of families early on Wednesday morning. The situation started deteriorating as the river Jiadhal has...

Cong to announce Mongoldoi candidate

15 Mar 2014 - 9:37am | AT News
Congress is believed to have finalized the candidate for the Mongoldoi seat.The crucial seat has three top contenders and that’s why, the party’s poll panel found it difficult to finalise it.The...

Gogoi thanks Karna for helping hand

26 Aug 2012 - 1:47pm | editor
Assam Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi on Saturday expressed his deep gratitude to Karnataka government for taking measures to tackle the issues facing people of the North East origin. Talking to...

Other Contents by Author

Gamusas and Japis are two important items in Assam, which are in much demand throughout the year in the state especially during festival seasons and social functions. These items are demanded by the people to honor the guests and honorable persons during each and every event.  However, it has been found that throughout the festival seasons the supply of locally woven gamusas are not according to demand by the customers. The reason behind it is said to be heavy cost of the locally produced items. On the other hand the weavers and traders from other parts of the country take advantage of supplying gamusas at cheaper rates and make more profit despite spending heavy cost on...
Archaeological Survey of India, Guwahati circle, has been trying to take-up the work of repairing of a broken pillar in the Mandap of Hayagriva Madhav Temple at Hajo for a long time. ASI, Guwahati has informed the media through a press note that one of the pillars of ancient temple was broken in three parts due to rusting of the iron dowels holding each other and the other developed cracks due to the same reason and widened more after the earthquake of May 2015. Hayagriva Madhav Temple is a reconstructed temple during the Koch period. The architectural parts of the earlier temple have been used for reconstruction. Different parts of the temple have been used randomly for making the pillars...
There is a generation gap between the signing of Assam Accord on the Independence Day 1985 and the present generation has to face new challenges to compete with the world class people in all spheres of development. The young people are confused over the airing of old issues which have lasted for long 31 years in absence of any solution. The issues pertaining to the Accord have become irrelevant under the present circumstances. The Assam Accord issue is still haunting and confusing the present generation due to absence of a clear picture. The fate of the Accord is not known to the people in general. A few politicians and intellectuals are trying to raise the issues of the accord from time to...
It is an established fact that a person involved in political activities cannot remain in peace till his cherished dreams are fulfilled. This can be noticed through the recent statements of former Assam chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, who has been expressing his views frequently in media against the four months old BJP-led alliance government in the state under the chief minister ship of Sarwanand Sonowal.  He (Gogoi) dares to demand a ‘white paper’ from state government about the steps taken by it to clear the encroachments of forest and other government  lands in the state and also to let the people of the state know, what action it has taken to identify and deport the foreign...
Addressing a huge gathering of residents of Udaypur, Jonakpur and Birubari at Udaypur Kali Mandir complex on Sunday, July 3, 2016, East Guwahati Assembly Member, Siddharth Bhattacharjee, emphasized the need of implementing the vision document of development as envisaged by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at the function organized by Udaypur Yuva Sangha to felicitate him on his success in the recently concluded polls to the state Assembly, he conveyed his thanks to the people of the area for showing their confidence in him. He assured the people that he would not let their confidence go in vain. The meeting was presided over by Dr Phani Borah. Senior citizen of the locality Kartik...
Hardly a few days ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Alliance has taken the reign of Assam administration the results of efforts made by Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi to bring back black money to the state coffer, has started recently with the arrest of Dhemaji Divisional Forest Officer, Mahat Chandra Talukdar by anti-corruption department. For a long time the reports of wildlife crimes were in the air, but the previous state administration ruled by Congress Party under the three-terms  leadership of Tarun Gogoi did not try to take any action. The former Chief Minister Gogoi was under a wrong impression that the people who gave him a...
A study conducted by B Boruah Cancer Institute, Guwahati, has revealed that during a decade from 2001-02 to 2011-12, cancer cases in the north-eastern part of the country have gone up from 5,404 to 8,708. A campaign, namely, Cycle 4 ride can help control this dreaded disease. In order to raise awareness to fight cancer a lady, namely, Marcellna Sangma, is going to lead a Biker Mission to 600 kms long stretch from Guwahati to Bum La Pass, near Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh. The ride is scheduled to be flagged off by Dr Amar Chandra Kataki, Director, B Boruah Cancer Institute, on April 21, 2016.Expressing her traumatic experience with cancer, Sangma, who was a cancer patient a decade...
Being disturbed since the first phase of polling for Assam Assembly on April 4 last, the Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi is finding it difficult to remember the history of Assam agitation propelled by All Assam Students Union (AASU) since the year 1979 to the Independence Day of 1985, resulting in the Assam Accord which was signed between the Assam Government and the movement leaders in presence of erstwhile prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Heavy polling beyond 85 percent of the electorate in the second phase also made Gogoi to think over the majority of young and new voters were not the ‘beneficiaries of getting blankets, yarn and mosquito nets’. They are young, energetic, literate and...
Continuing campaigns for Assam Assembly elections have confused the Assam intellectuals to raise vital issues before the future state legislators and improve the quality of political atmosphere affecting the entire society for quite some time. Almost all political parties have started ‘derogatory’ comments against their rivals for attracting the electorates by their acts and objectives about which they are themselves ignorant. The main reason behind such interpretation is lack of knowledge about the real issues on which the political parties are campaigning. Assam as a state of multi-lingual and religious people continued to be disturbed since the year1979, when several organizations under...
Long awaited North East Graduate Congress, an initiative of Education Research Development Foundation (ERDF) is going to be held from February 26 to 28, 2016. This is the only graduate congress in India being organized by University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM) in association with RIST and supported by the State Bank of India (SBI). The venue of the congress is the USTM campus at 9th mile, Khanapara. Addressing the media persons in Guwahati on February 14, 2016, the USTM spokesperson informed that the three days congress is aimed to enhance all round development and bring out the capabilities of future graduates through various life skill processes to bring out  their...