Letters to the Editor: End of the line

There appears to be some similarities in the Assembly poll results of Punjab and the municipal bodies' election recently held in Assam. In both the said elections, the century-plus-year-old INC under the Vadra-Gandhi had to bite the dust. It appears that in the present-day politics, the most controversial, rudderless, spineless and ideology-less politicians that the nation has ever seen are namely Navjot Singh Sidhu of the INC and our own most ambitious and opportunistic young regional political leader Lurinjyoti Gogoi.

Thankfully, the voters of Punjab and Majuli have given the duo a befitting rout. Sidhu should judge comedy shows which suit his personality as a career and Lurinjyoti Gogoi should re-join AASU to protest against CAA. Compulsive critics like Akhil Gogoi and Bhupen Bora are the other two in the waiting list.

Lanu Dutt Chowdhury,

Guwahati.

Revival of paper mills

My attention has been drawn to a recent news-item in the print media, citing a meeting between the representatives of Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held early this month. The INS representatives contended in the meeting that due to less production of newsprint domestically the publishers are facing financial crunch as the cost of printing and publishing newspapers has gone too high. India's domestic production of newsprint is only 50% of the total requirement and so the rest is being procured from the global market at all-time high price. In this crisis situation, reference needs to be made to the two shut-down paper mills in Assam, namely the Cachar Paper Mill (in the Hailakandi district) and the Nagaon Paper Mill (in the Morigaon district) which have remained closed from October, 2015 and March, 2017 respectively. The Bharatiya Janata Party had made its major poll issue to revive these two sick paper mills in all its election campaigns in two general polls in 2014 and 2019 and also in two successive Assembly elections in 2016 and 2021. The Party received huge support of the voters of Assam on all four occasions and formed Governments at the Centre as well as in Dispur.

But the BJP has failed to keep its poll promises.

In the 1970s the country witnessed an unprecedented paper boom. But entry of computers and telecommunications has greatly reduced use of paper and most of these mills started closing operations gradually. Since these two closed mills are still treated as 'going concern' during the liquidation process under the directive passed in 2019 by the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal), the State Government should negotiate a deal with the relevant authority to revive them. But the manufacture of paper has undergone a sea change by mixing ash content or saw dust in pulp. A revival will, however, be viable by process of improved pulping and introducing latest machine technology. The State Government has embarked on setting up more industries in Assam and so the two mills, which produced good-quality newsprint when they were operational, should be revived. As these two mills are located in industrially backward districts, the units under a Central PSU must be revived under the state Government's initiative.

Pannalal Dey,

Guwahati.

Disabled bank pensioners

During the second part of the Parliament session, many important Bills will be discussed and passed, including the Bill for privatization of nationalized banks and if it happens, then it will be totally unconstitutional. It will also be against natural justice as well as against various court rulings against disparity between physically abled and disabled persons. I, being a disability activist, have continuously highlighted the various issues of disabled persons, including the insensitive attitude towards disabled persons in the banking sector. Disabled bank pensioners as well as their next of kin are getting lesser pension as compared to physically abled pensioners.

On behalf of disabled persons, I had submitted Representation to Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, to protect the Constitution and not to allow the Bill for privatization of nationalized banks to be passed until and unless the legitimate rights of disabled persons are protected. Recently, I sent Representations to 28 members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Jai Ram Ramesh, Sharad Pawar, Manoj Jha, the Çhairperson of Rajya Sabha, etc. In the meanwhile I had sent a Representation to Dr PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India and requested his intervention in the matter. Should the protector of the Constitution allow the Constitution to break down? Can the Bills passed by Parliament be violated by the parliamentarians themselves? The answer is definitely No. Then why are there no remedial measures? The matter has been pending for the last 26 years when the first Disability Act was passed in 1996 to follow the international treaties signed by Indian Government. Again, in 2016 the second Disability Act was passed by the Parliament which has provision of fine and punishment as well. When the wage revision talks were in progress, I had written to Chief Justice of India and to Prime Minister of India for their intervention. Now as the talk of upgradation of pension is going on, I have sent Representations requesting implementation of these Acts with retrospective effect in case of Disabled persons. So, on behalf of Disabled persons I again request our parliamentarians to have a pity on disabled bank pensioners.

Yash Pal Ralhan,

Jalandhar – 144003.