A CORRESPONDENT
MORIGAON: The All Tiwa Students' Union (ATSU) has demanded the Chief Minister of Assam to stop the auction of Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills by submitting a memorandum. The organization has urged the Chief Minister to take steps to revive the Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills. The ATSU organization has strongly protested the government's move to auction both the paper mills to private parties. The organization stated in the memorandum that both the paper mills were able to provide placement to over 2 lakh unemployed youths while the paper mills were functioning. The organization led by the central committee president Dipak Amsong said that the Prime Minister of India and the Union Home Minister had promised to revive the Nagaon and Cacher Paper Mills before the assembly election, 2021 which they did not fulfill. Besides, the State Government too had turned a deaf ear to the paper mill issues.
The ATSU organization said that as advised by the National Company Law 'Tribunal', liquidator Kuldip Verma had called a tender for auctioning the Nagaon and the Cachar Paper Mills through the media. In this regard, the organization posed three questions. First, the Kerala government has been able to revive the Kerala Paper Mill, which is one of the units of the Hindustan Paper Mill, by submitting a petition before the justice of the National Company Law. If the Kerala government could revive the Kerala Paper Mill, why does the Assam Government not take initiative regarding revival of the two paper mills.
Second, Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills have more than 5,000 bigha land and many machineries of both the mills are lying in a good condition. So why did the government move to auction the paper mills for just Rs 1,139cr?
Third, the organization also said that land of over 2,000 indigenous tribal people had been taken for setting up the Nagaon Paper Mill in Jagiroad. If the government sells the public property to private parties then the organization will definitely protest the handing over of the tribal lands to private parties .The organization also said that the employees of the paper mills have been deprived of getting salary for over 53 months for which the condition of the employees have worsened and total 87 employees died due to lack of proper treatment. The organization has appealed to the government to stop the auction and has demanded revival of both paper mills.