HPC Employees In Dire Straits; Government Fails To Take Stand

GUWAHATI: The employees of the HPC mills in Assam want the government to either close the two ailing mills or revive them. They are against the government keeping the future of the two mills and their employees in a hanging state.

The employees of the two paper mills and their families are in dire straits. In such a situation, as and when death or suicide happens to any of the employees, the blame goes to the government. There is nothing unusual in such blames as the employees have not been getting their salaries for the past 27 months. Most of them have hungry mouths to feed and wards to educate. Many of their wards undergoing education in metropolitan cities in the country have come back. The current situation is set to spell doom for the future of their wards.

On Saturday last, an employee of HPC’s Nagoan mill, Biswajit Das (55), committed suicide. Various employees’ unions of the two paper mills said that acute cash crunch had led Das to commit suicide. Employees’ unions of the two paper mills now want nothing short of a clear-cut reply from the government – if it can revive the mill or not. They are not ready to buy any such assurances that may keep them hang in the balance.

The BJP-led coalition coming to power in 2016, State Industries Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary assured the employees of the Nagoan and Panchgram paper mills that the State government would revive the ailing mills within a year. The coalition government at Dispur is going to complete three years, but the revival of the two paper mills is not in sight. Dispur then passed the buck on the Centre. The State government said that it had sent a package proposal to the Centre for the revival of the two paper mills. The Centre too made an announcement that it would release a part of the arrears salaries of the two paper mill employees as an immediate succour. The Central government’s announcement has not been materialized as yet.

Talking to The Sentinel, Manabendra Chakraborty, the chief convener of the HPC Paper Mill Revival Action Committee, said: “Strangely enough, the two paper mills have been closed without issuing any closure notice. Two years have already elapsed. The government should come up with a clear-cut stand now. It should either revive the two mills or close them for good. It shouldn’t keep us hanging in the balance. We can’t die many times before death.”

Chakraborty further said: “We held many rounds of talks with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. He gave us many assurances that failed to materialize. In the past 27 months many employees of the two mills committed suicide for not being able to free themselves from debt traps. Many wards of paper mill employees studying in metropolitan cities have to discontinue their education. Their future is uncertain. We keep on agitating, but our cries continue to fall on deaf ears of the Centre and the State government. The Centre is releasing crores of rupees for the revival of sick industries in other States, but not in Assam. Now we’re compelled to tell the government – kill or cure us. However, we’re not ready to accept anything that may keep us hanging in the balance.”

The moot questions are – why can’t the Centre take a clear-cut decision on the two ailing paper mills in Assam? If it can run the mills, why can’t it revive them? If it can’t, why can’t it clear the employees’ dues and close the mills for good? It augurs well for Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to play the role of a catalyst to reach the final decision on the two paper mills.

Our Jagiroad correspondent adds: A conspiracy has been hatched to sell off the Nagaon Paper Mill and Cachar Paper Mill at Rs. 5 crore. Talking to this correspondent, Paper Mill Revival Joint Action Committee convener Ananda Bordoloi alleged that New Delhi is all set to handover both the paper mills to NMC Health Care of UAE at Rs. 5 crore. According to sources, apart from NMC Health Care owned by industrialist Raghuram Setty, the Dalmia Bharat group also submitted its Expression of Interest (EOI) for acquiring the two paper mills. However due to lapses on its part, the Dalmia group is out of the bid.

Bordoloi further said that the land value alone of both the mills will be more than Rs 2,000 crore. In addition to that, there are a lot of machineries left in both the mills, besides their guest houses in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Bordoloi has urged the CBI to inquire into it.

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