2 paper mills shut in Kumaon

The Uttaranchal Pollution Control Board has ordered the closure of two agro-based paper mills in the Kumaon region for not following environmental safety measures.

"The Chima and Multiwal paper mills have been closed," a top government official told Business Standard. The closure came following the board's directive to all the paper mills in the Kumoan region to follow the environmental safety measures.

The two paper mills had been given notices repeatedly to either shift from agro-based production to waste-paper jobs, or put up chemical recovery plants.

But both failed to comply with the directive, the sources said. While the Rs 16 crore Chima paper mill is located in the Bajpur area of Udham Singh Nagar, Multiwal is based in the Kashipur area of the Kumaon region.

Meanwhile, the board has also seized the bank guarantees of four other paper mills, all located in the Kumaon region, on similar grounds. However, all the four mills have told the board they would meet the environment safety norms by March next year.

Harbhajan Singh Chima, the owner of the Chima Paper Mill, said he should have been given more time to implement the safety measures.

Stating that his company had got an IDBI loan of Rs 6 crore for buying environmental safety equipment, Chima said he had requested Chief Minister N D Tiwari to give time till March 2006.

Chima, who is also a BJP MLA from Kashipur, criticised the government for not giving any attention to the industries in the state, which he said were on the verge of closure due to its "indifferent attitude".

The owner of the Multiwal paper mill could not be contacted.