কাগজ কল কর্মীদের বেতনের ৯০ কোটি অন্য খাতে সরিয়ে নিয়েছে কেন্দ্র
Shocking Revelation: Govt. diverts 90 crore earmarked for salary of HPC employees for other purposes

May 2: On 24 August 2018, a delegation of HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee met with the President of India and urged upon him for the revival of the mills at Nagaon and Panchgram. They also narrated how they were without salary for several months. The President gave a patient hearing and assured to provide an amount of Rs. 90 crore for disbursal of the salary of the paper mill employees. However,since than almost a year has elapsed but that amount was not released by the Government of India.

The matter was taken up to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), a quasi-judicial body in India that adjudicates issues relating to Indian companies. Since then, hope started to build up among the employees that the Tribunal will help them to get that amount of Rs. 90 crores. The amount of 90 crores was also earmarked in the national budget of 2018-19.

However, all hopes of the employees of the two paper mills at Nagaon and Panchgram were nipped in the bud when on Thursday the Additional Solicitor General appeared before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on behalf of the Government and told that the 90 crore rupees which was only a part of HPC salary dues, shown in the budget of 2018-19, ‘has been diverted’ to other purposes. This indirectly means that the episode of Rs.90 crores is now a bygone affair and the HPC employees are not going to get the money.

Moreover, as the Lok Sabha elections are going on in the country, the matter can only be taken up afresh again once the new government is formed at the centre. But till then, its absolutely dark days ahead for the employess of the HPC mills. Meanwhile, Manabendra Chakraborty, Chief Convenor of HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee while speaking to newsmen a few days ago said, “We appeal to the government to construct ‘gas chamber’ and kill all workers & their dependents of HPC Paper Mills of Panchgram and Nagaon as Hitler did to kill the Jews. It’s better to die at one stroke than to get killed everyday in abject poverty without getting salary for more than 2 years.”

Till now, 55 employees of the mills have died due to poverty out of which some have even committed suicide. The last one to die was 55 year old Engineer Biswajit Mazumder, an engineer of Nagaon Paper Mill, who committed suicide on 29 April, 2019 in the absence of salary for the last 29 months. Another employee of the Panchgram Paper Mill said, “The amount of 90 crore earmarked for our pending salary would have solved our present cricis to a considerable extent. But now as it has been found that the central government has diverted this fund to some other purposes, we are now left with no other options but to wait for death every moment.” He further said, “This government has lost its trust and credibility.”