-Crores worth machinery is being destroyed
-Factory has now become a pasture
-Vehicles getting destroyed without supervision
-It is difficult to say when this mill will be restart
-Md Nurul Kabir, MD, Rangpur Sugar Mill
The production activities of Rangpur sugar mill have been closed for more than four years. As the factory is closed, the familiar scene of daily busyness of farmers and officials is no more. The factory premises, bustling with the footfall of thousands of people, has now turned into a pasture. Equipment worth crores of taka is becoming unusable day by day due to careless neglect.
The Rangpur sugar mill, which is responsible for the livelihood of millions of people involved in various ways, besides about 1,000 workers and officials and 50,000 farmers, has not yet been commissioned. Rather, the sugar mill has been completely closed for four years. However, in the name of modernization, the income of lakhs of people of Gaibandha has been closed, the workers have complained. They are living an inhumane life today.
Meanwhile, part of the permanent employees of this sugar mill, vehicles, parts and various essential goods have been removed. The 35 acre factory area has been filled with forest as production activities have stopped from here. Nearly half a hundred sugarcane transport vehicles and machinery worth hundreds of crores of taka are now unusable lying in the open air.
It is known that in 1954, the construction work of Rangpur sugar mill started in Mahimaganj of Gobindganj upazila of Gaibandha Mahukumar of Rangpur district. The construction of the mill was completed in three years at a cost of Tk 261 crore at that time. Sugar production started in the mill from 1957-58 season through sugarcane crushing. The factory and offices of the mill were built on a 35-acre site with machines brought from a company called Bacau-Wolf in West Germany.
In 1972, the then government declared all sugar mills including Rangpur sugar mill as state-owned enterprises.
Residential facilities were built for sugar mill officials. The area of railway siding with pond is eight acres. 50 sugarcane buying centers and eight sub-zones were built on 14 and a half acres of land. Apart from this, the amount of the mill's own farm land is 1 thousand 832 acres. From 1957 to 2020, the mill wheel rotates for 5 thousand 739 days out of 22 thousand 985 days in 63 years. And during this period, 4 lakh 27 thousand metric tons of sugar was produced by crushing 56 lakh 35 thousand metric tons of sugarcane.
Not only that, Rangpur sugar mill had its own power generation system. The electricity produced in the power house here was supplied to different parts of the upazila including the railway station. The sugar mills had their own railways to transport sugarcane. Sugarcane, sugar, Chitagur and various products including fuel were transported on that railway with its own railway engines and freight carriages. Mahimaganj railway station was the splendor surrounding the sugar mill. Thanks to that, Mahimaganj became a famous trading center. Rangpur Sugarcane High School plays a unique role in the development of education in the district. All in all, this traditional factory created a way of income for many people including sugar mill workers and sugarcane farmers.
At that time, after completing all the preparations for the start of the annual sugarcane threshing season and leaving a large amount of mature sugarcane in the field, the angry sugarcane farmers and workers started a massive agitation. But the threshing process was stopped by showing a thumbs up to the labor movement and farmers' pathetic demands. The workers and farmers said that then the protesting workers and farmers were informed through a press release in almost all national dailies of the country that all the sugar mills including this sugar mill will be reopened very soon through modernization.
Half a thousand contract workers who have lost their jobs are now forced to live a dehumanized life by doing various jobs including driving van-rickshaws because of their stomach. On the other hand, thousands of sugarcane farmers and ordinary people of the area have become angry because of the closing of this mill for mysterious reasons, although it has more crushing capacity and produces more sugarcane than the nearby sugar mill.
According to various sources related to sugar mills, in the 90s, during the era of the then Ershad government, in the name of modernization, a huge amount of loan was given from the World Bank to the sugar mills under the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industry Organization for the renovation of expensive cars and houses, ambulances and factories for the officials. That debt has now become a thorn in the neck for the sugar mills. This World Bank loan is the main reason for Rangpur sugar mill's accumulated losses of Tk 500 crore.
Managing Director of Rangpur Sugar Mill Nurul Kabir said that there is still confusion about the re-opening of the mill, it is difficult to say when it will be opened. Acknowledging the fact that the machinery was destroyed, he said that the vehicles used for transporting sugarcane are being destroyed as there is no shed to store vehicles in this huge factory.
ZH
