THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy strongly objected to the disinvestment of Hindustan Newsprint Limited saying it was an attempt to hand over the factory land to real estate lobbies. “The state government should urgently initiate measures to recover the 700 acres acquired at low cost for the factory,” Mr Chandy told the media here on Monday. Mr Chandy who had earlier in the day called on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Mr Vijayan had fully endorsed his stand. “With disinvestment, the 2500-odd acres of forest land handed over to the factory to achieve self-sufficiency in raw material production will fall into the lap of real estate agents,” Mr Chandy said.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that a resolution should be moved in the Assembly to delink HNL from Hindustan paper Company, the parent company of HNL. Though the Centre had spoken about divesting the shares of HNL, Mr Chandy said that there was no clarity on the volume of HNL shares that would be offloaded. There was such a plan during Vajpayee's time, too. Then, the plan was to sell 70 percent of HNL shares.
Further, it was then decided to remove the management and retain the factory as it is. “The then Chief Minister A.K. Antony expressed his strong disapproval and the Centre withdrew from the move,” he said. He said that 100 percent production takes place in HNL factory that had been operating at a profit right from the start. “The entire facilities for the factory were provided by the state. The state had spent over Rs 500 crore by way of subsidies alone. There are hundreds of families dependent on HNL,” he added.
