The Sarala Spinning Mill at Tirtol of Jagatsinghpur district has been sealed for defaulting to clear loan of Rs 4.75 lakh.
Sources said that the property seized by the bank was about ten times more than its outstanding loan amount. The value of the defunct mill will be worth Rs 40 crore at current market prices.
Meanwhile, a demand for revival of Sarala spinning mill has gathered momentum. Congress has decided to approach Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for intervention. If nothing happens, the Congress will take to the streets, threatened Tirtol Congress leader and party spokesman Er Himansu Bhusan Mallick.
The BJP leaders have also sought the Union Government's help for Sarala spinning mill restoration. In last two decades Naveen Patnaik-led BJD Government has failed to initiate steps for its revival, charged Raj Kishor Behera.
Responding to banker’s takeover bid, former employees and workers of the dead spinning mill including locals from Tirtol area have criticised the State Government.
Notably, after the Super Cyclone, 1999, the mill had suffered damages. The State Government could not take off any bold step for its revival. On the other hand, it launched VRS for employees and offered a paltry pension amount of Rs 700 per month to each employee accepting VRS. But while many of the employees have embraced the scheme, several workers are yet to be included in the scheme and pension, informed former spinning mill workers Gagan Kumar Nath, Baikuntha Dash and local resident Nitya Nanda Nayak from Tirtol.
Established in the year 1985 by then Tirtol MLA and former Minister late Basanta Kumar Biswal, the spinning mill was a source of livelihood for nearly 1,600 persons. It was functioning under Odisha State Cooperative Spinning mills Federation Ltd [SPINFED]. However, the mill incurred huge losses due to mismanagement, overstaffing, shortage of raw materials and difficulties in marketing of mill products. In the 1999 super cyclone, the mill was badly damaged and subsequently declared closed.
Meanwhile, the State Government in the year 2000-01 had given Rs 50 lakh for mill damage renovation under the cyclone restoration scheme. Ironically the funds had been completely siphoned off and badly utilized by the executant contractor, sources informed.
Moreover in the year 2014, the Odisha Government had planned to revive the mill through private participation but the proposal could not materialise, said BJD leader Debendra Mallick from Tirtol.
Following thousands of migrant workers returned villages during Covid 19 crisis, demands had gathered momentum for reopening of the spinning mill, during Tirtol by-election in the year 2020.