HPC committee expresses fury over Modi's silence on paper mills, threatens to continue protests

The HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee, a joint body of the workers’ unions of Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill in Assam, has expressed its fury over the “silence” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of the non-functional paper mills.

Modi had visited Barak Valley on Thursday and addressed a gathering at Ramnagar in Cachar district, where he spoke on various issues but did not utter a word over the two paper mills. This was Modi’s second visit to the valley this year. Earlier, the Prime Minister had visited on January 4. That time too, he did not speak anything about the paper mills.

Cachar Paper Mill, set up in 1988, is the only major industrial undertaking in Barak Valley. It is located at Panchgram in Hailakandi district. The Nagaon Paper Mill is at Jagiroad in Morigaon district. It was set up in 1970. Production has been suspended Cachar and Nagaon paper mills since October, 2015 and March, 2017 respectively. Their workers have not received their salaries for more than two years.

Manobendra Chakraborty, chief convener of the committee, said the government’s careless attitude has killed 51 workers of the mills so far and many more are on the verge of death. “The government has murdered these workers,” he said, and attributed poverty, excessive stress and lack of medical treatment for the deaths.

He said though the mills’ workers and their families have been suffering for the past several months due to non-payment of salaries, the government seems to be in a state of slumber and shows no urgency to remit the salaries.

The committee had staged an agitation in Silchar on Thursday in protest against the death of the mills’ 51 workers. The agitation was staged before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrival at Ramnagar. Over 40 protesters were detained while they were about move towards Ramnagar. They were later released in the evening.

Chakraborty said Modi’s silence has proved that he “does not care” about the plight of the workers and their families at all. “He (Modi) has betrayed the masses of Assam,” he said. Further, he threatened of continuing their protests if the mills are not revived and the pending salaries are not paid soon.

Committee convener Baharul Islam Barbhuiya said the government has a “special bonhomie” with corporate classes and does not care about the common masses. Although many promises were made about the mills’ revival and payment of pending salaries, all those were nothing but “eyewash”, he said. He added they will not remain silent till the government makes the mills functional and remits the salaries.

It may be mentioned that Congress president Rahul Gandhi, during his visit to Barak Valley recently, announced that the paper mills will be revived within six months if the Congress comes to power. Mahila Congress president and Silchar Congress candidate Sushmita Dev during a rally at Itkhola in Silchar on Friday reiterated that both the mills will be made functional within a period of six months if the Congress comes to power.