HPC Paper Mills Staff Rallies Against ‘Betrayers’

GUWAHATI: The ‘HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee’ has appealed to the voters of the State “to exercise their franchise against all those who have betrayed the people”. This appeal was made by the chief convenor of the Committee, Ananda Bordoloi here on Wednesday. Stating that though Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had promised to revive the Cachar and Nagaon paper mills of the Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) three years ago, Bordoloi of the Nagaon Paper Mill told media persons that “nothing has been done in that regard. As a result, the employees of these two paper mills have been compelled to starve.” Till now, 51 of them have already died prematurely owing to the starvation while two others have committed suicides, he pointed out.

Blaming the governments for failing to come up with a solution to this issue, Bordoloi said, “Now, we’re forced to bring up this grave subject in front of the people of the State.”

Committee convenor Dipak Chandra Nath of the Cachar paper Mill added, “The government has hatched a conspiracy to sell a number of profit-making industries at throwaway prices, and the two papers mills of Assam are among them. With a view to benefiting private entrepreneurs, the government stopped production works at Cachar Paper Mill on October 20, 2015, and stopped the functioning of the Nagaon Paper Mill on March 13, 2017. While campaigning for the 2016 Assembly polls in the State, Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Panchgram in Barak Valley had assured to revive 32,000 small and large industries, including the paper mills, but nothing was done in the subsequent times. Similarly, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had also assured the same during the ‘Namami Barak’ festival on November 18, 2017. He even stated that “within six months the paper mills will commence production, and within three months the employees will get their salaries and other perquisites. But those too appeared to be false promises.”

Though the Parliament on August 27, 2018 had sanctioned an amount of Rs 90 crore for the salaries of the employees of the two HPC paper mills, the amount has not yet been released, he pointed out.

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