Nod to HPC recast, Sankhya Vahini buried

new delhi: in a slew of decisions, the cabinet approved advance action to close down seven non-operational units of cement corporation of india, amendment to the indo-kuwait air service pact and formal closure of the much-talked-about sankhya vahini venture. besides, the cabinet committee on economic affairs okayed the financial restructuring package for hindustan paper corporation and procedural changes in the allocation of funds under the sarva shiksha abhiyan programme. the ccea, which met yeterday, approved a financial restructuring plan for hpc aimed at turning around the loss making company and to wipe out accumulated losses by 2004-05. as per the plan, frozen past interest including penal interest would be written off. the package also includes payment of salary and wages of hpc’s employees and also for redemption of non-cummulative redeemable preference shares. hpc, set up in 1970, has two manufacturing units--nagaon paper mills and cachar paper mills in assam. the corporation has also three subsidiaries--hindustan newsprint in kerala, nagaland pulp and paper company in nagaland and mandya national paper mills in karnataka. briefing reporters, parliamentary affairs minister pramod mahajan, the union cabinet approved advance action to close down seven non-operational units of cci under the industrial disputes act and offer vrs to its employees. the seven units are mandhar cement plant, raipur, kurkunta plant, gulbarga, nayagaon plant, neemuch, akaltara plan, bilaspur, charkhi dadri in bhiwani, adilabad in ap and delhi grinding unit. cci has been suffering losses since 1992-93 and has an accumulated loss of rs 1,425.92 crore.