Govt proposes VRS for MCCL staff

SHILLONG: The loss-making State-owned  Mawmluh Cherra Cements Limited (MCCL) has been asked to work out a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) scheme by April this year to reduce the number of employees.
An official source said that the Company will have to work out a proposal to reduce the staff strength by one- third.
This was one of the conditions put forward by the Government while releasing the salary for two months in December last year.
The salary of as many as 500 employees has been pending since July last year.
Another condition for the release of the next installment of salary for employees is that MCCL should commission the new plant by May this year.
The Government in December last year had released Rs 2.5 crore for payment of the salaries of employees for two months.
The Government will work out the salaries of employees for four more months which would come around Rs 5 crore provided that MCCL goes for VRS and also commission the new plant by May, sources said.
The production of cement was halted since July last year due to shortage of coal and delay in the modernization of plan.
The Committee on public undertakings headed by senior legislator SC Marak  had pointed out that the State Government will have to release at least Rs 50 crore  for the production of cement for the new plant.
The amount of Rs 50 crore is projected for payment of loans and wages.
Out of the required Rs 50 crore,  Rs 20 crore is needed as payment to various creditors, Rs 16.9 crore for repayment of a term loan availed from UCO Bank and Rs 3 crore for minimum liquidity of coal, according to the committee on public undertakings.
The plant started its commercial production in 1966 using the wet process and after it outlived its normal life and production was dismal, a dry process plant was set up in 2006, but its production was delayed and the commissioning was postponed several times.
Moreover, after the NGT ban on coal mining, the production of cement was affected  compelling MCCL to get coal from outside the state.
The company made profit till 2006-2007 with production of around one lakh MT annually. Later, the production has come down to just 70,000 MT which resulted in losses.