Former Union Minister Srikant Jena Urges Odisha CM To Save ODCL

Bhubaneswar: Former Union Minister Srikant Jena has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take necessary steps to save the profit-making Odisha Drugs and Chemicals Ltd (ODCL) from shutting down.

In a letter, Jena said ODCL the only profitable public sector drug manufacturing unit of Odisha was a joint venture between the Centre and the state government. But surprisingly, the Centre has decided to shut it down and liquidate its assets in the middle of a pandemic. What is even more shocking is that the closure of this unit had the consent of the state government and IPICOL (which has a 49% share in ODCL).

He said the ODCL started making a profit from 2010-11 till its closure in December 2020. The annual profit of the company was about Rs 2 crore with an annual turnover of approximately Rs 100 crore (using market prices for its products). Moreover, the company had almost become debt/liability-free by clearing off past dues over recent years.

He further said during his tenure as the Union minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers in the UPA government, ODCL had received an infusion of Rs 5 crore that helped it to become a viable unit from then onwards.

Stating that the unit with GMP (good manufacturing practice) compliance was producing essential drugs notified by the Centre with a monthly production of approximately 2 crore capsules, 3 crore tablets, 25 lakh ORS, 2 lakh liquid orals, and 30 lakh injections (both vial and ampoule), Jena said that to his utter surprise, the Odisha government did not place a single purchase order though the unit sold their products to other states.

Pointing out that the present land value of this unit is approximately 200 crores apart from its fixed assets, he said that ODCL was a gift to Odisha by the Janata Party government in 1977 (when Biju Patnaik and Shri Rabi Ray were both cabinet ministers) with the main objective of production of essential quality drugs at an affordable price for people of Odisha and other eastern states.

Suggesting that Odisha would rope in a strategic partner for the production of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic which could be done in the shortest possible time through ODCL and this can be an asset for Odisha in the future, Jena requested the Chief Minister to buy back 51% shares of the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL) whose market price is only 64 lakhs, in the greater interest of Odisha.