While India is struggling with the ‘unemployment’ problem amid COVID-19 pandemic, Topcem Cement has found a Bangladeshi diplomat’s wife as the ‘most suitable candidate’ for a senior job in Guwahati.
Topcem Cement, which claims to be the ‘Best in Northeast India’, appointed Munera Azam as its senior manager, marketing & sales.
Munera Azam is wife of Shah Mohammad Tanvir Mansur, Bangladesh Assistant High Commissioner to Guwahati.
The Bangladeshi diplomat’s wife started the job at Topcem Cement’s corporate office at Mega Plaza in Guwahati in the month of March, sources said.
While marketing and sales executives across all sectors in India are caught in the whirlpool of layoffs and salary cut, Topcem Cement’s ‘special job offer’ to the Bangladeshi diplomat’s wife has raised many eyebrows.
Why couldn’t Topcem Cement recruit a ‘local candidate’ for the position of Senior Manager Marketing & Sales?
Also read: Topcem Cement ‘looting’ indigenous tribal population of Meghalaya
From prima-facie investigations, it was found that Munera Azam has ‘no special skills’ for the position of Senior Manager Marketing & Sales.
Or, was the ‘job’ to Munera Azam some kind of a ‘thanks-giving’ for some ‘special favour’ by Bangladesh’s Assistant High Commissioner to Guwahati?
Sources said Munera Azam has a bachelor degree in Mass Communication from the University of Liberal Arts in Bangladesh, and had worked as an executive with the Standard Chartered Bank from 2012 to 2013.
She had worked as a Marketing Coordinator with Asus from September 2014 to October 2016 in Dubai.
Between 2017 and 2019, Munera Azam did her Master’s degree in International Marketing, with a scholarship of the Russian government.
And, within months of completion of the Master’s degree in International Marketing, Topcem Cement offered Munera Azam the job of Senior Manager Marketing & Sales.
Topcem Cement has already earned the dubious distinction of ‘depriving’ the rights of the indigenous people of Northeast India, especially in Meghalaya.
While it ‘exploits’ limestone reserves of East Jaintia hills in Meghalaya to produce about 4,600 tons of cement daily, Topcem sells every bag to the Khasi and Jaintia tribal population at a ‘higher price’.
It has been found that people in Shillong and Jowai are paying Rs 40 to 60 more (in comparison to all major towns of Assam) for every bag of Topcem Cement they buy.
Also read: Topcem Cement’s ‘Build Green’ jingle fades away with failure in ‘Environmental Compliance’
While large-scale extraction of limestone by Topcem Cement from the South Khliehjri Limestone mine has long term brunt on the ecology of East Jaintia hills district, the local tribal population have not been compensated for it.
Despite extracting natural resources of the tribal population of Meghalaya, and enjoying all the benefits under the North East Industrial & Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), Topcem Cement has not shied away from charging ‘extra money’ for sale of every bag in Meghalaya.
In addition to the price disparity, the management of Topcem Cement has also been found failing in its ‘Environmental Compliances’.
The cement company failed to publish its ‘Environmental Compliance Statement’, which is a ‘mandatory obedience’ as per the MOEF&CC guidelines.
The management of Topcem Cement also failed to publish Stack Emission Monitoring and the Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Results after September 2020.
And the cause of serious concern is that Topcem Cement management did not publish the Upstream and Downstream Water Analysis report of its South Khliehjri Limestone mine after September.