Revival of mills a state subject, says Supriyo
Dimapur, July 21 : Well, sort of. After all ado, the issue of revival of mills is a state subject. That–according to a statement of the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises on Wednesday–practically means that the controversial White Elephant of the state, the Nagaland Pulp & Paper Company Limited (NPPC), is an onus to be borne by the state’s government.
“Industry is a state subject. Hence revival of old mills is prerogative of state government / union territories or the concerned administrative ministry / department where these are under public sector,” the minister of state in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Babul Supriyo, said in reply to a written question in the Rajya Sabha on July 20.
He said that the department of Heavy Industries was concerned with central-public sector enterprises under its administrative control. This includes decision on their revival and or closure also, he said.
Also, the minister said that the central government had approved ‘revival packages’ for Nepa Limited and the Nagaland Pulp & Paper Company Limited (NPPC). The two ventures are central-public sector enterprises under the department of Heavy Industry ‘having paper mills.’
The packages were approved in September 2012 and June 201, in that order, he said of the two central-public sector enterprises.
“After approval of revival scheme, government has so far released Rs. 234.18 crore to Nepa Ltd. and Rs. 100 crore to NPPC Limited for their revival,” Minister Babul Supriyo said.
Interestingly, even as ado was being raised in the state concerning the ‘revival’ status of the Nagaland mills, the center had raised some smoke earlier that there were utilization certificates that the Nagaland government hadn’t submitted then.
On December 8, 2015, a question was raised by Member of Parliament Sunil Jumar Mondal before the then minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises GM Siddeshwara concerning the details of the budgetary allocation made by the government for heavy industries. Another query concerned with public enterprises in various parts of the country for the current year, state and union territories including West Bengal.
Documents obtained by this desk show that the queries were (a) whether funds had been released or utilized in said regard and (b) if so, furnishing the details of them and if not, the reasons.
In reply, GM Siddeshwara had listed out financial details concerning a number of central-public sector enterprises in several states of the country including the Hindustan Paper Corporation (Cachar Paper Mill (CPM) / Nagaland Pulp and Paper Corporation).
The budget allocation in the year 2015-16 for them was 104.00 crore, he said. Likewise, the funds that were released or utilized (up to 30.11.2015) was 50.00 crore (plan) and 10.46* crore (non-plan).
“While Rs. 50.00 crore has been released to Cachar Paper Mill (HPC), Rs. 54.00 crore allocation to Nagaland Pulp and Paper Corporation (HPC) has not been released for want of utilization certificate in respect of funds released in previous years,” he said during the session back then.
In May this year, local media reports stated that the central government had assured to sanction Rs 30 crore to the Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC), out of which an amount of Rs 12 crore was marked 'to be made available to the Nagaland Pulp & Paper Company Limited.' The amount was reportedly to clear ‘outstanding dues amounting to around Rs 12 crore’ besides for repairing works on machineries.
A local media report had attributed a press release from the Nagaland Chief Minister’s Office stating the chief minister of Nagaland as having said that out of the Rs 100 crore released by the Ministry of Heavy Industries in 2013, ‘Rs 60 crore was diverted by HPC Ltd.’
NPPC Mill is located at Tuli, in Mokokchung district of Nagaland.
