Assam govt failed to convince central govt for revival of paper mills: Tarun Gogoi

May 4: Former Chief Minister & senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi took to his official twitter handle on Saturday and severely criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in the state for the sorry state of affairs of the Cachar and Nagaon Paper Mills.

Gogoi in his official Twitter handle stated, “It is unfortunate that Sarbanand Sonwal and Himanta Biswa Sarma has miserably failed to impress the Central government for its survival. During our tenure, in spite of all difficulties, we didn’t allow the mills to stop operations. The Advantage Assam which was organised with fanfare was a Jumla.” Gogoi directly held CM Sarbananda Sonowal & Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for this debacle.

It is unfortunate that @sarbanandsonwal & @himantabiswa has miserably failed to impress the Central Govt for its survival.During our tenure, inspite of all difficulties, we didn't allow the mills to stop operations.The Advantage Assam which was organised with fanfare was a Jumla. https://t.co/UXU5tQ9bqw

— Tarun Gogoi (@tarun_gogoi) May 4, 2019

Gogoi also did not leave the chance of holding Prime Minister Modi responsible over the decision to close down both the paper mills. In another related tweet, the octogenarian Congress leader Tarun Gogoi stated, “The decision to close down the two prestigious paper mills of Assam – Cachar and Nagaon Paper Mills has indicated that the Modi government is not interested in the economic development of Assam. He only shed crocodile tears with fake promises of its revival.”

It needs mention here that all the employees of Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills, two units of state-owned Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL) have not been getting their salaries for more than two years. While production at Cachar Paper Mill, Panchgram stopped on 20 October, 2015, the Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad was closed on 13 March, 2017. Till now, 55 employees of the mills have died due to poverty out of which some have even committed suicide.

Meanwhile, the last nail in the coffin of the two paper mills were struck on 2 May, 2019 when the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in New Delhi ordered the liquidation of the two paper mills under Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited in Assam, which has been non-functional for the past few years.

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