Ray of hope for revival of paper mills, as NCLT rejects plea of liquidator

May 12: In what seems to be a major relief for the now defunct paper mills at Nagaon and Panchgram, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Delhi Bench has rejected the liquidator’s plea for permission to liquidate assets of these 2 mills run by Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) Limited. Informing this, a press release was issued by Joint Action Committee for Registered Unions (JACRU) on Wednesday.

In the press release, it was stated that, “The bench has not only rejected the plea of the liquidator Kuldeep Verma but it has also ordered the liquidator to follow the order of Appellate Tribunal NCLAT passed on May 29, 2019 to ensure that HPC remain an ongoing concern.”

It needs mention here that the Industry and Commerce department of government of Assam on 10 September wrote to Kuldeep Verma, Liquidator of HPCL seeking one month time for revival of the defunct HPC paper mills as the “state government is making sincere efforts and pursuing the matter with the central government for revival of the closed mills and clearance of all dues of employees and workers”. Manobendra Chakraborty, President, JACRU said, “Besides repeated adjournment of the hearing at NCLT, Delhi,  the Assam Government failed to submit their final plan or proposal to the Liquidator or before NCLT.”

Mr Chakraborty further said, “Finally, the NCLT Delhi Bench pronounced its order on 26-04-2021 & the copies of order reached us yesterday, which clearly rejects the petition of Liquidator who applied for permission to liquidate the Corporation & directed to obey the order of Hon’ble Appellate Tribunal NCLAT passed on 29-05-2019. By this order, hope for revival of the 2 industries has gained momentum.

The press release also stated that the JACRU, “is confident that the government in Centre and State will take all initiatives on war footing strategy to release pending dues of the workers and will revive the two paper mills and thereby save many lives.” Manobendra Chakraborty further said that the test time begins for Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of Assam to prove his credibility as dynamic and unparalleled leader by submitting a concrete plan and thereby revive the two defunct paper mills of the state.

Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill run by Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL) have been non-functional since 20 October 2015 and 13 March 2017 respectively. The employees of the two mills have not received salaries for the past 53 months. Being deprived of salary & other emoluments for such a long period, the employees of the two HPC Paper Mills are embracing death one after another. As of now, the death toll at HPC Paper Mills has now reached 85 including 3 suicides.