Revival of HPC Paper Mills: Employees to Welcome Viable Package

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Officers and Supervisors’ Association of Nagaon Paper Mill, has sought the State government’s intervention for immediate steps to revive the HPCL (Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited) paper mills at Jagiroad and Cachar. The association also welcomed offers by various parties for taking over the HPC paper mills subject to certain conditions.

Addressing media persons at the Guwahati Press Club here on Monday, Association president Hemanta Kumar Kakati said, “We’ve learnt that some private parties including NRL (Numaligarh Refinery Limited) are showing interest to set up their business in HPC, we want to say that we’ve no issue on privatization. We’ll accept the offer of any reputed professional business house (public or private) running or taking over HPC, if they clear the employees’ dues and meet the terms and conditions of employment. The parties who want to take over the industry must clear our pending dues. They will have to discuss all terms and conditions with the stakeholders prior to taking over the HPC.”

Dwelling on the present strength in the HPC paper mills at Nagaon and Cachar, Kakati said: Currently there are 1,100 workers and officers in both the paper mills. It has been 32 months that we’ve not received our salary. A total of 57 employees died due to financial hardships and three employees committed suicide; one among them has clearly accused the government for his death in his suicide note.

Kakati further claimed, “Various authorities have served notices to the employees as even after the deduction of statutory dues from our salary, the dues were never deposited to the authority concerned. Even after the deduction of statutory dues from our salary up to February 2017, these dues were not deposited since 2015. This include the income tax, that has not been paid since April 2015, PF since March 2015, EPS since July 2015, bank loan since May 2015, GLIC since December 2016, LIC premium since September 2015, professional tax since July 2015.”

Claiming that following their visits to various officials, bureaucrats, MLAs and ministers of the Government of Assam as well as Government of India, Kakati stated, “We were given assurances of restarting the mills and also that their dues would be cleared soon; but nothing concrete has materialized.”

The Association president further said, “The Government of India had sanctioned a sum of Rs 90 crore in July 2018 exclusively towards the payment of salaries and dues of HPC employees as interim relief. But for some unknown reason, the payment was never released and we didn’t receive (anything from it), although it was sanctioned under the supplementary grant and notified in the July 2018 Government of India gazette.”

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