Understanding problems of Assam’s industries

Assam Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had the other day said he was the saddest person in the New Year because several of the companies which had signed MoUs with the state government during the Advantage Assam Investment Summit in February 2018 to set up units here have backed out because of the anti-CAA movement. While he may be true to some extent, not everything is true. One small example – the third Khelo India Youth Games event has already taken off in a grand manner and close to 10,000 sportspersons from all over the country have landed up in Guwahati to take part in it. Had the situation been bad due to the anti-CAA agitation, the first biggest casualty would have been the Games. Yes, it is true that the hooliganism and violence caused by certain anti-social elements – who, according to police and intelligence reports, belonged to certain specific localities of Guwahati – did send out negative signals from Assam. The government’s knee-jerk reaction and blacking out internet services too had contributed immensely to the negative publicity Assam got. But then, what appears to be lacking in the Government of Assam in general and in the industry department in particular is a general lack of understanding about the industrial scenario of the state. It is a fact worth appreciating that the BJP-led government at the Centre had a few years ago come out with an ambitious and well-drawn Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for the Northeast. That is because the Union Petroleum Minister is a dynamic person with proper knowledge and understanding of the country’s hydrocarbon resources. That exactly is why he happens to be the only minister at the Centre who was entrusted with the same petroleum portfolio for the second successive term and that too with an elevation from Minister of State to Cabinet rank. That the present Assam government lacks in proper understanding of the state’s industrial scenario has been proven time and again just by two glaring examples. One is the case of the two giant paper mills of the public sector Hindustan Paper Corporation – HPC in short. The people of Assam have seen how many self-contradictory statements and utterances this government in general and its Industry and Commerce Minister in particular have made in the past three years or more about revamping the HPC paper mills at Panchgram and Jagiroad. A couple of years ago, the Industry Minister even announced that the HPC head office was being shifted to Guwahati. On another occasion, the same minister spoke about the Centre clearing a revival package for Jagiroad and Panchgram. But, while a few employees of the paper mills even resorted to committing suicide after being unable to feed their children, things have come to such a pass that the authorities have begun the process of putting various assets of HPC for auction sale. Several hundred employees of the two paper mills, who have not been paid their legal dues for more than a couple of years, are now fearing that the authorities will soon put up their residential quarters for sale. The National Company Law Tribunal, before which the Government of Assam did not even turn up to plead for the helpless employees, had last month issued a notice asking the employees to vacate their quarters. Simply because of lack of understanding of the functioning of a large public sector industry like HPC, the Government of Assam had also miserably failed to put up a proper representation before the Prime Minister and the Union Industry Minister to save the two paper mills, and also save the employees who had voted for them in the last two Parliament and one Assembly election. What now looks like is that a similar fate is awaiting the Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Ltd – BVFCL – factory at Namrup. It has been nearly a decade now that then Union Fertilizer and Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had made a public announcement at Namrup in the presence of then Dibrugarh MP Sarbananda Sonowal that the Centre had a revival plan in hand. The present Sonowal government, it seems, has failed to put up a strong case in favour of revamping the Namrup fertilizer plant, and the several hundred employees are being gradually pushed into darkness. Another factor is that while the Government relies too much on officers who have little or no knowledge about running large industries, never has it bothered to consult several veteran technocrats of the state and take their valuable suggestions and services.