Future of Khulna textile village hangs in balance

Future of the proposed Khulna textile village hangs in the balance leaving the people of the district doubtful about the project.
Work on the project has remained stalled for several years now due to callousness of the textiles and jute ministry and complexities caused by three cases filed.
Khulna Textile Mill was established on 26 acres of land near Boyra main road in the city in 1931.
The mill was run by Adamjee until 1970 and its ownership was later transferred to Arshad Group in April, 1972.
It was later nationalised in the same year. There are now 32 people, 17 of them guards, employed at the mill which was declared closed in 1993.
The authorities started the work on establishing a textile village there after selling goods of the textile mill.
In 1999, the government gave approval to the work in the form of a project.
Around Tk 6 crore was allocated for the project in several phases.
With the implementation of the project, about 12,000 people would get employment opportunity, hoped the authorities.
But the work of the project remains halted for bureaucratic tangles and the cases filed against the mill.
Rupali Bank regional branch filed a case demanding repayment of Tk 2.8 crore loan in 2003, of which the authorities have already paid Tk 50 lakh.
But the bank authorities revived the case as the management of the mill did not pay the rest Tk 1.58 lakh due by 2011.
Mahmud Ali Mridha, a trader of Dhaka, filed a writ petition with the High Court, demanding Tk one crore share of the mill in 2010.
Abdul Majid, an ex-employee of the mill, and his associates filed a case in 2011 claiming the ownership of 46 decimals of land of the mill.
All the three cases are under trial, sources said.