AASU demonstrate demanding setting up of 4th unit of BVFCL

Guwahati, Sep. 13 (PTI): The All Assam Students Union (AASU) today staged a demonstration outside the Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited (BVFCL) at Namrup, in Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district, demanding immediate setting up of the fourth unit of the plant.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised in his pre-poll speeches that setting up of the fourth unit of the plant would be a part of his government’s first 100-day agenda but this is yet to happen”, AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi told PTI.
The Cabinet had also approved the proposal and technical bidding for the setting up of the plant had also been initiated but following protests against alleged plans to hand it over to private parties, it was stopped, he alleged.
The AASU held a protest outside the main gate of BVFCL today and will send a memorandum to both the Prime Minister and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal urging them to ensure that the process for setting up the plant starts immediately.
“When Sonowal was the Union Minister, he seriously pursued the setting up of the fourth unit and now as the chief minister, we urge him to take up the initiative again”, Gogoi said.
AASU would continue with its agitational programme till the process for setting up of the fourth unit does not begin, he added.
The Centre had cleared a plan for setting up of the Rs 4,500-crore ammonia-urea plant at Namrup with a capacity of 8.64 lakh metric tonnes on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis via a joint venture.
In the proposed joint venture (JV), the Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited (BVFCL) and Assam Government were to have 11 per cent stake each and the Oil India Limited (OIL) 26 per cent equity holding.
The remaining 52 per cent was to be with either private or public sector companies, which would have been inducted through a competitive bidding process.