TIDC is officially in the red , reserve fund of only Rs 30 crore but debt is Rs 34 crore , depression among employees and officers

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, November 30, 2022

The cat is finally out of the bag : at a time when the campaign on ‘Har Ghar Sushashan’ and ‘Har Ghar BJP’ is on , the Tripura Industrial Development Corporation (TIDC), once a booming dividend-yielding PSU , is now officially in the red. The officers and employees of TIDC are currently in a state of deep frustration and alarm over their future. The reason for this is attributable to the fact that currently TIDC has a reserve fund of only Rs 30 crores whereas its debt or liability is Rs 34 crores in the form of pending bill of contractors, refundable security deposits of works done by contractors , pending court cases and completely unproductive and useless expenses as a result of comprehensive looting spree by the ruling party. Significantly, when the previous government had exited power in March 2018 the TIDC had a reserve and surplus fund of Rs 174 crores but this has now come down to overall gaping deficit.

Disclosing this gory details sources in the TIDC said that over the past five years altogether five MDs have been shifted because of their refusal to be complicit in the looting spree of the once-booming corporation. Citing instances of gross and brazen corruption sources said that the political authority running the TIDC had forced the officers and employees to pay up 50% of disputed bill to contractor even though there was a court case on the issue was on . Despite objection from officers the corrupt political authority of TIDC had spent Rs 5 crore for construction of boundary wall around the special economic zone (SEZ) in Sabroom even though the project is under the industry department of the state government and the TIDC was never supposed to incur the expenses. Besides, in places sheds were constructed unnecessarily under political pressure but these sheds and other unproductive assets are now lying useless .

Apart from this, TIDC had a regular monthly income of Rs 5 lakhs from a cold storage and a food laboratory given on a five year agreement to PRAAN group of Bangladesh now doing business here. The cold storage is lying useless as many parts and equipments have been destroyed without repair while the PRAAN group has been ousted from the food testing laboratory in violation of agreement . The food laboratory is now run by an NGO ‘Hambai’ which is totally ignorant of running a sophisticated food laboratory and which has made a mess of everything therein, totally stopping the monthly income of TIDC.

“There are countless other instances of gross corruption and mismanagement by the political authority; as many as five senior officers and MDs brought these matters to the notice of chief minister and chief secretary but no action was taken to correct the situation” sources said.They added that all these matters will be brought to the notice of the new MD Bishwasri Boga who is joining soon and it is expected that she will intervene strongly to save the TIDC from going deeper in red.

Meanwhile, the new chief minister Dr Manik Saha ordered a high level inquiry into the affairs of the TIDC by his principal secretary L.H.Darlong . The inquiry was held and report submitted to the chief minister but no action has been taken as the political authority running the TIDC , once a crony of the ousted chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, has switched sides overnight and joined the camp of the new chief minister. But the employees and officers of TIDC are deeply scared that if the present condition continues the once-rich Corporation will have to down shutters jeopardizing their future.


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