Employees, locals against HNL divestment

Kochi: The proposed divestment move of Hindustan Newsprint (HNL), the only profit-making unit under Hindustan Paper Corporation, has evoked a sharp reaction from both employees and the local people. Speaking to presspersons, the HNL Protection Committee, comprising various trade unions and representatives of the local people, asked the state government to take the initiative in forcing the Centre to have a rethink on the proposed divestment move of this profit-making public sector unit, which has been included among the Mini Ratna category.

Convener of the committee T B Mohanan says the present move is yet another example of the insensitive attitude the Centre has against various states interests. "If the central authorities intend to move ahead with the divestment plan, the state government should not fail to take over the unit, which has been a showpiece of Keralas industrial credentials."

Mohanan says the divestment plans have been pushed through on the basis of the strangest of the logic. "HNL is the only unit that has been making profit consecutively for the past many years. The Nagaland unit has been closed down eight years now; the Karnataka unit has already been referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction; the Naugong Paper Mill and Kachar Paper Mill in Assam have been in the red for the past many years." Now the Centre has come out with the strange logic of financially helping these loss-making units from the resources mobilised through the divestment of the only profit-making unit under the corporation, he says.

The Kerala state government too has an equity participation in HNL, which was commissioned in 1982 with an investment of Rs 127 crore. Against this, the company has so far paid back nearly Rs 450 crore as way of taxes and royalty, Mohanan says. The unit that has a production capacity of 1 lakh tonne per year has already received ISO 9002 for quality assurance and ISO 14001 for eco-friendly practices. There are 1,450 regular employees and as much casual labourers, in addition to the 10,000 people working in related areas.

According to Mohanan, the protection committee has decided to go ahead with agitations and the local people have come out in full cooperation. "Protest marches with lighted torches, siege of central government offices, panchayat-level conventions, road blockades, Raj Bhavan march, Parliament march and rail rokko strikes have been planned as part of the agitations."