Amin Jute Mills Limited
<i>Workers for probe into corruption, not closure</i>
Amin Jute Mills Limited, the largest jute mill in the country after closure of the Adamjee Jute Mills, will meet the same fate of other closed jute mills unless proper measures are taken immediately.
The mill, a losing concern for the last seven to eight years, has been running with manifold problems for long due to corruption and mismanagement by a section of officials and CBA leaders.
The workers of the mill urged the government to make a thorough investigation into the allegations of corruption and irregularities instead of taking decision to close the mill.
Workers, staffs and officials now fear that the mill might be declared lay off at any time, creating uncertainty among 3000 permanent and shifting employees and their families.
Thousands of people who live on different occupations and small businesses, like grocers, barbers, small shop owners, hotel owners, electricians, tailors, pharmacy owners and others are also in the same fear.
Two units, out of four, of the mill led by Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) were shut down a few years ago, sources said.
The unpaid bank loans, huge arrears wages, provident fund, gas bill, electricity bill, spear parts procurement and jute procurement stand at around Tk 100 crore. Besides, the mill bears liabilities like land tax and cost of handling or carrying goods.
The workers are not getting their outstanding wages for 10 weeks while around 318 officials and staffs are not getting salaries for four to five months. The salary approximately amounts to Tk 10.11 crore.
Aminur Rahman, project head of the mill, said they have been facing financial crisis due to lack of enough allocation from government for the last four years.
The workers and staffs said irregularities like mismanagement, carelessness, corruption in jute procurement and lack of enough government allocation, are responsible for the crisis in the once profitable mill.
Blaming the successive governments for their carelessness about the jute sector, Nurul Islam, general secretary of Jatiya Sramik Federation, said due to belated allocation from government the mill, like other BJMC-led jute mills, is to buy raw jute in late season from the brokers in higher prices.
It has been happening for long, he said, adding that it helped the private jute mills to buy raw jute directly from the farmers in cheaper prices.
Nurul, also an adviser to the CBA of the Amin Jute Mills, said a section of dishonest officials in collaboration with a few CBA leaders are involved in corruption during purchase of jute showing excess weight in documents.
Like jute procurement there is also allegation of huge corruption in buying spear parts and other required materials, he added.
Echoing the same view Hafizur Rahman Mintu, a worker of unit2 said a section of former CBA leaders own huge land in the mill area where they have built a number of houses to rent to the workers and are making money.
General workers said they have heard this but they have no proof in this regard.
Head of the project Aminur Rahman refuted the allegation of corruption in jute procurement.
He said, "The mill has become a losing concern as it was not possible to start full capacity production for the last few years due to shortage of raw jute."
"We can purchase only 47 per cent of our required four lakh mounds of raw jute a year with the government allocation we get," he said.
Aminur, however, said the mill will be viable again as the BJMC has already sent us Tk 1.50 crore for purchasing jute."
The government has sanctioned Tk 150 crore for 18 public jute mills for jute procurement as part of its initiative to make the jute sector viable, he added.
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