Radheshyam Biswas urges Centre to revive defunct paper mills

Karimganj MP Radheshyam Biswas has urged the Centre to consider the matter of the two defunct paper mills of the Hindustan Paper Corporation in Assam with immediate priority and take prompt steps to reopen the units at the earliest.

The mills — Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill have been lying defunct since 2015 and 2016 respectively. Cachar Paper Mill, the only major industrial undertaking in Barak Valley, is located at Panchgram in Hailakandi district. Nagaon Paper Mill is at Jagiroad in Morigaon district.

Biswas, who raised the issue in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, said around four lakh people, who were associated directly or indirectly with the mills, have been suffering for the past several months. The mills’ workers have not received their salaries for the past 24-25 months because of which they are not able to run their families.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said Modi, during his campaign trail at Kalinagar on March 27, 2016, had said that the Cachar Paper Mill would be revived if the BJP came to power at the state, but nothing happened till date.

“Many other leaders of the BJP had given assurances on the revival of the mill, however the fate of the mill remains unchanged,” he said. Further, he urged the Centre to consider the matter with priority and initiate necessary measures so that both the industrial units are revived.

Sharing his reaction with Barak Bulletin, Manabendra Chakraborty, president of the HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee, a conglomerate of workers’ unions of Cachar and Nagaon paper mills, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hurt the sentiments of lakhs of people in Assam by making “false” promises regarding revival of the mills.

Chakraborty, who has spearheaded a large number of agitation movements held in connection with the demand for revival of Cachar Paper Mill, alleged that the Modi government intentionally dealt with the process in such a way that the units are declared insolvent and their ownership goes to corporate classes.

He also took a jibe at Sarbananda Sonowal saying the chief minister had a number of times said that the mills would be revived, those were nothing but “bogus” promises, Chakraborty said.

He also threatened of large-scale protests if the government does not take steps to reopen the mills and remit the workers’ pending salaries soon.