SHILLONG: The Confederation of Industries of Meghalaya (CIM) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take expeditious steps to resolve the issue of coal availability for survival of industries in the North East.
A delegation of the Confederation of Industries of Meghalaya on Friday met Modi and submitted a memorandum demanding support for the growth of industries in Meghalaya.
The president of the confederation, Banwari Lal Bajaj in the memorandum said that due to vast availability of key raw materials such as limestone and coal, entrepreneurs from the region made investments of more than Rs 5,000 crore in the cement sector which today provides direct employment to more than 10,000 families and a sizeable population of the region indirectly.
“It is also pertinent to mention that prior to setting up of the cement industry the supplies were made from the mainland and that too in erratic manner which also resulted in high prices and spurious cement. The local cement industry set up in the North East provided the entire region with fresh and high quality BIS certified cement which has led to development and growth,” the memorandum pointed out.
The CIM said that the industries are now facing challenges in Meghalaya and one of the reason is the uncertainty in availability of key raw materials such as coal which though abundantly available cannot be mined due to abrupt imposition of the ban by NGT.
According to Bajaj, the bottlenecks and uncertainties after investments were made by entrepreneurs have led to closure of significant number of industries in small and medium sector and have sent several others on the verge of closure.
The Confederation urged the PM to take expeditious steps to resolve the coal availability for survival of the industries besides taking steps to accord approval from Mining and Forest Authorities for paving way for availability of limestone, without which, the cement industry will not survive.
The group also said that railway connectivity should be established near cement clusters in East Jaintia Hills and Umiam in Ri Bhoi to reduce overall cost of production besides rationalizing power tariff and cross subsidy surcharge in the NER.
They also sought financial support to certain public sector units like Hindustan Paper Corporation and CCI for clearing long overdue payments of local MSMEs.
