Reopening of Paksey paper mill demanded
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Our Correspondent
RAJSHAHI, July 15: Several thousand sacked labourers and employees as well as local people of Paksey have been waiting eagerly for the reopening of the closed North Bengal Paper Mills (NBPM) as the government opted for 'no more privatisation' of state owned industries and 'restarting of the closed industries'.
Situated on 133.71 acres of land, the work of establishment of NBPM started from March 3, 1967 and the test production of the mills started on July 25, 1970. During the test production, 2,657 tonnes of fine quality paper was produced in this mill.
As the Liberation War broke out in March 1971, all the foreign experts of the mills went away and the mill was damaged severely by aerial bombings of the Indian air force.
The mill restarted its operation once again from 1973 with 641 employees and workers. Moreover, several thousand people adjacent to the mills became the beneficiaries from the mills in various ways.
The mill used wastages of sugar mills, jute sticks, sticks of wheat plant and pulps from Khulna as raw materials and continued to produce fine quality papers, newsprints, printing papers and papers for packages.
But, on the plea of incurring loss, the mill was closed down rendering 896 of workers and employees of the mills unemployed on November 30, 2002 after long 27 years of successful operation.
In 2006, the government took a decision to sell the mill to private entrepreneurs but that decision has not been implemented.
With the declaration of the present government that the mill should be reopened, people of Paksey hope that the mill would restart operation providing job for thousands of unemployed people and make a positive contribution to the economy of the country.
RAJSHAHI, July 15: Several thousand sacked labourers and employees as well as local people of Paksey have been waiting eagerly for the reopening of the closed North Bengal Paper Mills (NBPM) as the government opted for 'no more privatisation' of state owned industries and 'restarting of the closed industries'.
Situated on 133.71 acres of land, the work of establishment of NBPM started from March 3, 1967 and the test production of the mills started on July 25, 1970. During the test production, 2,657 tonnes of fine quality paper was produced in this mill.
As the Liberation War broke out in March 1971, all the foreign experts of the mills went away and the mill was damaged severely by aerial bombings of the Indian air force.
The mill restarted its operation once again from 1973 with 641 employees and workers. Moreover, several thousand people adjacent to the mills became the beneficiaries from the mills in various ways.
The mill used wastages of sugar mills, jute sticks, sticks of wheat plant and pulps from Khulna as raw materials and continued to produce fine quality papers, newsprints, printing papers and papers for packages.
But, on the plea of incurring loss, the mill was closed down rendering 896 of workers and employees of the mills unemployed on November 30, 2002 after long 27 years of successful operation.
In 2006, the government took a decision to sell the mill to private entrepreneurs but that decision has not been implemented.
With the declaration of the present government that the mill should be reopened, people of Paksey hope that the mill would restart operation providing job for thousands of unemployed people and make a positive contribution to the economy of the country.