Stage set for reopening of Ashok Paper Mill

GUWAHATI, July 26: The stage is now set for the reopening of the Ashok Paper Mill, once considered to be one of the best paper mills of the country, as a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with a Calcutta based company for leasing out the mill. Official sources told The Assam Tribune that the state government and the Ashok Paper Mill Assam Limited today signed an MoU with the Soneko Paper and Industries Limited of Calcutta. The MoU was signed by the Commissioner of Industries of the Government of Assam, Managing Director of the Ashok Paper Mill Assam Limited and the Director of the Soneko Industries. As per the MoU, the mill would be leased out to the Soneko Industries for a period of 25 years. The Soneko Industries will pay a lease rent per month from the date of taking over of the mill and will absorb all the existing employees of the mill. Official sources said that the Soneko Industries would take over the mill soon after completing the necessary formalities. Sources expressed the hope that the mill would be able to start production within a few months. Official sources said that sufficient care was taken to safeguard the interest of the state and the mill while preparing the MoU and it is expected that the bitter experience of leasing out of the mill to the Sanghi Textiles of Hyderabad would not be repeated again. Sources said that the officials of the Soneko Industries, with a team of technical experts already visited the mill and conducted a detailed study. They would visit the mill again shortly and submit a detailed action plan for the reopening of the mill within a couple of weeks. The officials of the Soneko Industries also signed a draft agreement with the existing 380 workers on their salaries and wages and the final agreement would be singed in presence of Labour Department officials soon. Sources revealed that the Soneko Industries, which has a paper mill in Orissa, has the necessary experience of producing and marketing paper and they should be able to run the Ashok Paper Mill properly. It may be mentioned here that the Ashok Paper Mill, set up in the early 1970s, with a capacity to produce 90 tonnes of paper per day and it had the distinction of producing the finest quality paper available in the country. These was a time, when the mill produced about 120 tonnes of paper per day. But different factors led to the closure of the mill in 1983. In 1995, the Government of Assam leased out the mill to the Sanghi Textiles of Hyderabad. But according to official sources, the Sanghi Group was technically not equipped to run the mill as it did not have any experience of running a paper mill. The Sanghi group also failed to pay the salaries and wages of the employees regularly and two officials of the group were even arrested for violating the labour laws. Ultimately, the Sanghi group abandoned the mill in June last year and it was taken over by the Ashok Paper Mills Assam Limited. Since then efforts were on by the state government to reopen the mill by leasing it out to a suitable company.