NEW DELHI, July 19 - The Centre on Tuesday claimed to have taken a number of steps for revival of the Cachar Paper Mill.
In a Lok Sabha reply to a question by Badruddin Ajmal, Minister of State of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Babul Supriyo admitted that Cachar Paper Mill (CPM), a unit of Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) is facing financial crisis on account of non-availability of coal owing to blanket ban imposed by National Green Tribunal on mining and transportation of coal in Meghalaya wherefrom 100 per cent requirement of CPM used to come. Coal cannot be sourced from other sources as there is no broad gauge linkage inside CPM premises, he said.
Confirming that Mill has been shutting down now and then owing to shortage of raw material, the Minister said that Government of India after realising the problems faced by CPM, has taken a slew of measures. These includes grant for meeting its operational costs on account of transportation exclusively to mitigate the logistic disadvantages of CPM.
Department of Heavy Industry has also provided working capital support for Cachar Paper Mill. Moreover, Government has provided assistance for conversion of Meter Gauge (MG) to Broad Gauge (BG) from Panchgram Station to inside Cachar Paper Mill (CPM) premises, the Minister said.
