Defunct paper mills: Committee to stage protest during Modi’s visit on Friday

The HPC Paper Mills’ Revival Action Committee, a joint body of workers’ unions of Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill, will stage a protest in Barak Valley on the day of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit on Friday, demanding revival of the defunct mills and payment of the workers’ pending salaries.

Modi, who is visiting Barak Valley for the second time after becoming the Prime Minister, will address a gathering on Friday at Ramnagar, around 4km from Silchar.

Talking to reporters at a news conference in Silchar on Wednesday, one of the conveners of the committee Baharul Islam Barbhuiya said through the protest they want to make it clear to the government that they are not going to remain silent till the mills are revived and the pending salaries are released.

Cachar Paper Mill, the only major industrial undertaking in Barak Valley, is located at Panchgram in Hailakandi district, while the Nagaon Paper Mill is at Jagiroad in Morigaon district.

Barbhuiya said though the workers’ and their families have been suffering immensely because of non-payment of salaries for the past 24 months, the government is not bothered about their plight and has shown no urgency to come up with initiatives to resolve the matter, he said.

Convener Azizur Rahman Mazumder said Modi, while campaigning in Barak Valley in 2016, had assured that the Cachar Paper Mill would be revived, however nothing has happened till date. “Through the protest, we want to remind him (Modi) about the ‘fake’ promise he had made to the masses here,” he said.

He shared that a total of 49 workers have died since the mills ceased functioning and cited poverty, trauma and lack of medical treatment as the cause behind the deaths.

Another convener Sanjeev Roy echoed Mazumder and blamed the negligence of the government for the deaths. The government is not at all bothered about what the workers and their families are going through,” he said.

The committee, however, did not disclose the location of the protest.

Committee members Najmul Islam and Dipak Chandra Nath were also present.