Citizens Forum, Guwahati meets CM Sonowal, urges for revival of HPC Paper Mills

June 18: A delegation of United Citizens Forum for Revival of Nagaon & Cachar Paper Mills met Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at Guwahati on Tuesday. While interacting with the Chief Minister, the mebers of the delegation requested his intervention for immediate necessary action for revival of HPC Paper Mills. They also urged upon the CM to release all pending dues of the workers and employees so as to abide by the orders of National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) given on 29 May, 2019.

The Nagaon Paper Mill and the Cachar Paper Mill are two paper manufacturing units under the central public sector enterprise Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL). The delegation highlighted the intolerable sufferings of the employees and their dependents as they are deprived of their salaries for more than 2 years. Deprived of proper treatment many of the employees/workers associated with this mills died and some of them have also committed suicide. The death toll of the mill employees/workers has reached 55 till now.

The delegation also handed over a Memorandum to the Chief Minister wherein they highlighted the verdict given by NCLAT on 29 May, 2019 where it was stated that the ‘HPC remain as going concern.’ Invoking the ‘Right to Life’ as enshrined in the category under Fundamental Rights, the Citizens Forum made an fervent appeal to revive the two paper mills, release all pending salary including statutory dues to the workers & employees and thereby save them from premature death.

In response, Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal assured the delegation that he has already taken up this issue with the Prime Minister and a concrete decision will be taken in this regard very soon. Speaking to way2barak, Manobendra Chakraborty said that they were confident that the government would definitely honour the law of the land and the rights of the affected associates would be saved by reviving the two paper mills.

The delegation which met the Chief Minister comprised of Ananda Bordoloi-General Secretary KNKU(INTUC) NPM, Manobendra Chakraborty-President CPPWU(INTUC) CPM, Dilip Patgiri, Lachit Bordoloi and Manoranjan Bora.