SHILLONG, March 28: The Mawmluh Cherra Cement Limited (MCCL), the oldest public sector undertaking unit and the only state-owned cement plant set up in the early 1960s is gasping for a fresh lease of life.
The state government is planning to revive the cement plant through a public-private-partnership proposal and is currently in negotiations with Kolkata-based firm Bhavika Commercial Private Limited (BCPL).
Highlighting the plight of MCCL, VPP legislator Ardent Basaiawmoit urged the state government to infuse Rs 200 crore into the loss-making unit to give it a chance for revival. He said this will help to maintain the identity of the MCCL as the public sector undertaking (PSU) of the state government.
According to him, MCCL has been considered to be the rice bowl of the people of Sohra and its neighbouring areas.
“I am of the view that the very existence of the MCCL will be put at risk if the government decides to run the cement plant on a joint venture,” the VPP legislator said.
He further suggested that it would be better if the government carried out a comparative study between MCCL and the privately-owned cement plants operating in Jaintia Hills.
According to him, the government can find out how much the local people are benefitting from the MCCL as compared to the private cement plants before reaching any conclusion.
The VPP legislator quoted media reports and said that former MCCL chairman Wailadmiki Shylla had visited the BCPL cement plant in Kolkata adding that it seems that the government has asked the firm to submit documents for verification of its credentials.
Basaiawmoit wanted the government to any guarantee that this company will be able to run MCCL since its turnover was under Rs 1 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2022.
In his reply, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said that despite infusing Rs 350 crore of funds, MCCL could not be revived forcing the government to look for private investors to run it in a PPP mode.
“Since 2006, Rs 350 crore has been infused into the MCCL and in the last five years alone, Rs 100 crore has been infused, mostly to pay salaries and other dues,” the CM said.
“We are exploring all possible options. We do not want to close it down since we are concerned about the employees,” the CM said.
Earlier, Commerce and Industries Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar said that the government has not fixed any timeline to resume the operations of the MCCL.
Dhar further informed that the BCPL is yet to submit its documents as requested by the government.
“We will take a decision on how to move forward only after scrutinizing the documents submitted by BCPL,” he added.
