Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla lays the foundation stone for the
Oil Palm Mill on September 15, 2012.

17/09/2012 (Mizo News) - Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla on Saturday laid the foundation for installation of Oil Palm Mill at Bukvangnei in Kolasib District.

The land is leased by Godrej from a private owners at Bukvannei village. The chief minister also visited the palm cultivation of Lalrodinga at Bukvannei and had an interaction with the cultivators.

The main function of the stone laying was held at Kolasib Diakkawn YMA Hall. It was presided over by constituency MLA, K Lalrinthanga.

Lal Thanhawla said that the installation of Oil Palm Mill would be “an important milestone for both Kolasib District and Mizoram as a whole”. He also showered praise on Godrej company for taking up such  development projects in Mizoram.

“Despite being a Christian state we are yet insufficient in economic sense,” Lal Thanhawla said, adding, “it is high time we need to be awakened and rise up.”

Mizoram has taken several initiatives in agriculture, yet don’t help much in bringing self sufficiency yet which is a matter of concern, the Chief Minister added.

He also took time to slam the opposition by stating that there was no ground for filing FIRs against 32 MLAs for corruption. “To uproot corruption, we all have different responsibilities. The responsibility of that of Judiciary, Legislature, Executive are all different.”

For purpose of installation of Oil Palm Mill, 25 hectares of land will be used, and Rs. 7 crore will be spent. The Oil Palm mill will produce 5 ton of oil palm per hour; and is expected to begin working by June 2013. 100 workers will be employed in the Mill, while another 500 persons will also work indirectly. It is expected that around 10,000 farmers will be benefited by the Oil Palm Mill. The Godrej Company had began working since 2007 in Mamit and Kolasib District, and as of now 8353.13 hectares of land is in used for Oil Palm cultivation by 8,600 farmers.