Defunct Dadri cement plant awaits govt intervention

Sat Singh

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Tribune News Service

Dadri (Bhiwani), December 6

The demand for replacing the defunct unit of the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) at Dadri in the district spread on 210 acres with a viable industrial plant has refused to die down even after its closure two decades ago.

INLD Dadri MLA Rajdeep Phogat raked up the issue in the Assembly and drew the state government attention towards utilising the infrastructure and huge land to generate jobs.

Phogat said: “I have used every platform to raise the voice of my people. I had written to the Centre and met the union minister looking after the industries portfolio and senior officials to seek replacement of the closed plant with a profit-generating unit”.

Bhim Sen Prabhakar, an activist who has been keeping the issue live, said: “The Central government had stopped production in the plant in 1996. The huge infrastructure with staff quarters, office building has been lying unused for the past two decades”.

He said over 3,000 persons used to work at the CCI plant which had always come into focus during Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections but nothing positive came out.

Local BJP MP Dharambir Singh had requested Union Minister Nitin Gadkari during his Dadri visit in April to replace the CCI plant with an industrial unit but nothing had been done so far on this front, said Suresh Garg, a retired schoolteacher.

Sources said the plant wore a deserted look and land mafia was active making most of the situation by erecting illegal structures. It had emerged as a safe haven for anti-social elements.

Former Dadri MLA Satpal Sangwan said that during the previous Congress regime, the Centre had agreed to transfer land to the state government with both governments negotiating its price.