No visible move to retake property from BSRM

Publication Date: 20 June 2016
Media: The Independent

Original Link: No visible move to retake property from BSRM

E-paper Link: No visible move to retake property from BSRM

Five years into the illegal sell-off of Chittagong-based state-owned Modern Karilin Silk Mills to Bangladesh Steel Re-Rolling Mills (BSRM), the government is yet to take any visible steps to reclaim the factory. Flouting the conditions of contracts between the government and the workers and employees of Karilin Silk Mills, one of its workers’ leaders sold a large piece of the mill’s land illegally to BSRM— one of the leading steelmakers in Bangladesh— through forgery in November 2010 at Tk 17.34 crore.

But industry insiders say the price of the land would be over Tk 100 crore. As per a gazette notification of the Ministry of Textiles and Jute and condition of the handover-deed between the government and the workers and employees, there is no provision to sell or buy the land of Karilin Silk Mills, sprawling on 2.69 acres of land alongside the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Faujdarhat Industrial Area. Upon visiting the site last week, this correspondent found the entire area has been taken over by BSRM. No one is permitted to enter the area except the BSRM employees.

However, when approached, Md Emaz Uddin Pramanik, minister for Textile and Jute, said, “There is no scope to sell state-owned Karilin Silk Mills to BSRM. As conditions have been breached, the mills will be reclaimed.” He also said that an order was pending with the cabinet, which will facilitate the process to reclaim the land. “An order from the cabinet is pending to re-acquire the factory. Today or tomorrow, the factory will be re-acquired,” the minister asserted. When asked, Brigadier General Bayezid Sarwar, chairman of Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC), said, “It’s a complicated matter. We’ve have informed the Ministry of Textile and Jute to reclaim the land. The ministry is taking necessary steps.” Karilin Silk Mills was handed over free-of-cost by the government to a board, comprising of permanent employees and workers of the mill, on June 13, 2010 in a bid to save jobs and make it a profitable enterprise as it had been a loss-making venture till then. However, instead of operating the mill efficiently, it was illegally sold to BSRM.