A tale of firms in two industries facing survival challenges in Assam

HPCL’s employees not getting salary for 6-9 months, while Namrup plants of BVFCL are still awaiting MoU to set up a new plant by phasing out ageing units.

While Sarbananda Sonowal-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Assam might have attracted investments worth over Rs 6,600 crore in its first year in office, firms in two pioneer industries — Asia’s first gas-based fertiliser plants at Namrup and two units of Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd (HPCL), the country’s first PSU to produce paper — are currently gasping for breath.

Over 1,500 employees of HPCL are facing difficulties due to non-payment of salary for six to nine months. The Namrup plants of Brahmaputra Valley Fertiliser Corporation Ltd (BVFCL) are still awaiting an MoU for a joint venture involving Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF), Oil India Ltd and the state government to set up a new gas-based plant by phasing out the ageing units.

“The Namrup story is pathetic. Once one of the finest fertiliser factories in the entire country, it has come to the current state of low performance due to a series of actions and non-actions of the government. While timely revamping and modernisation of the highly corrosive chemical plants were not carried out, the proposal for setting up an entirely new unit called Namrup-IV by phasing out the older plants continues to meet one hurdle after the other,” said Tileswar Borah, general secretary of the Namrup Fertiliser Shramik Union (NFSU).

The announcement for Namrup-IV was first made by Ram Vilas Paswan, fertiliser minister in the UPA-I government, in June 26, 2006. That remained a non-starter. The ministry’s effort to find partners for a PPP model simply did not materialise. It was only in May 2015 that a Cabinet approval came through for a “new-generation high-performance” Ammonia-Urea plant, but that also has hit hurdles. While the government kept 48 per cent equity — 26 per cent for Oil India Ltd, and 11 per cent each for the state government and BVFCL each, the first attempt to find a joint venture partner through bidding for the remaining 52 per cent equity failed to yield any result.
This prompted the ministry to start the process afresh, this time allotting the 52 per cent equity to RCF on nomination basis. “But things are still hazy. As far as we know, RCF wants the plant capacity to be raised from the proposed 8.64 lakh tonnes per annum to 12.70 lakh tonnes per annum. This will not only require more investment, but also lead to further raising the natural gas requirement by 0.62 mmscm (million metric standard cubic meters), which does not look like an immediate possibility,” Borah of the NFSU said. The ministry has earmarked Rs 4,500 crore for Namrup-IV.

Chief Minister Sonowal on June 9 had asked Union minister of state for petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan to look into the issue of enhanced gas supply so that Namrup-IV takes off. “The government has admitted obsolete technology, gas shortage and high energy consumption as reasons behind poor performance of the ageing old units. It has also admitted shortage of experienced and qualified manpower. For us, there are several immediate concerns till the first brick for Namrup-IV arrives. Nearly 700 employees have been working without wage revision since 2007. Our retirement age is also still 58,” said Borah.

While BVFCL still has some hope, especially in view of the government’s determination to make up for the 80-lakh tonne urea shortage in the country in the next 10 years, it is bleak future that has gripped the 1,500-odd employees of HPCL.

Formed in 1970, HPCL’s two mills — Nagaon Paper Mill and Cachar Paper Mills, both with one lakh tonne per annum capacity each, have gradually faced closure — had till a few years ago achieved 100 per cent capacity utilisation and won several awards, including the Mini Ratna status in 2009.

Massive bamboo flowering in Mizoram in 2009-10 was the first to hit bamboo supply to the two mills, non-renewal of a bamboo supply deal by the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, NGT’s coal mining ban in Meghalaya and closure of its caustic and chlorine plant by the pollution control board. Acute shortage of working capital has also contributed to closure of the two mills, Cachar in October 2015 and Nagaon in March this year.

“While our colleagues in the Cachar mill have not received their salaries for about nine months, those of us in the Nagaon Paper Mill have not received our salaries for six months now. Over two lakh people who are directly or indirectly benefitted by the two mills are also being affected by this closure and uncertainty. A Rs 1,347-crore revival package plan submitted by the ministry of heavy industries has been pending with the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs for several months now,” a joint memorandum recently sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by HPCL’s workers’ unions and officers’ associations said.

In 2005, HPCL had proposed a Rs 659-crore modernisation plan. While some units under this plan were completed with the company’s own internal resources, bigger support from the ministry has always remained a distant dream. “Further delay in resuming work would only damage the existing plants and machinery,” the unions said.

Sonowal’s plea with the Centre to take immediate steps to revive the two HPCL mills has not evoked any positive response as yet. While Sonowal had raised the issue during a Niti Aayog meeting in New Delhi on April 23, his industry minister Chandra Mohan Patowary has written several letters to the Union heavy industries minister in the past one year. Earlier, in September 2016, the Union heavy industries secretary had written to Sonowal that the Centre had prepared a Rs 800-crore package to revive the two mills. But now, the Centre has no such proposal at hand. Revamping the two mills was a promise that the BJP had made during the 2016 Assembly election campaign in Assam.

Source- www.indianexpress.com