What State Industries Department Has To Say Now?

GUWAHATI: Does Additional Chief Secretary of Industry Ravi Capoor, who was in the forefront in holding Advantage Assam in 2018, know the plight of Kohinoor Pulp and Paper Private Limited (KPPP)? As the then Industry Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Capoor was instrumental in bringing KPPP to Assam in 2011 painting a rosy picture on job generation and paper production.

In the presence of then Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and then Industry Minister Pradyut Bordoloi, at the initiative of Capoor the AIDC (Assam Industrial Development Corporation) signed an agreement with KPPP in 2011. On February 23, 2011 after the signing the agreement, Dispur gave 200 acres of land at Matia in Goalpara district to KPPP as the State Government’s share in the company, and the foundation stone was laid. It was announced that the project would produce two lakh metric tonnes of writing and printing paper annually, besides providing direct employment to 1,100 people and indirect employment to 50,000 others. It was also announced that the company would provide facilities to the public for growing bamboo. It was announced that the company would start its production from 2013, using bamboo as raw materials.

However, in 2019 the site of the project at Matia has only some rusty machines and half-constructed building structures covered by thick bushes. As if to cap it all, according to sources, the company has already declared itself bankrupt recently. Did Capoor keep in touch with the ailing industry in the past two years? Did he make any bid from the department’s end to solve the problems afflicting the industry in the past two years?

What makes conscious circles in the State rack their brains is: do the heavyweights in the State Industry department keep in touch with the plight of companies they brought to the State? In the past five/six years, many such companies were brought to the State and many of them went red. Who will stand guarantee to the industries being set up in the State by the present government that they will not go red and they will help Assam grow in job generation and production?

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