Road blockade in Barak Valley over pending salaries, revival of Paper Mill; 1000 protesters detained

The HPC Paper Mill Revival Action Committee, on Wednesday, staged a road blockade at Dhaleshwar in southern Assam’s Barak Valley demanding payment of pending salaries of the workers of Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill and revival of both the industrial enterprises.

The committee members gathered at Dhaleshwar around 9 am and blocked the National Highway-6 and National Highway-37. They raised slogans in unison pressing for release of the pending salaries and revival of the mills.

Manabendra Chakraborty, chief convener of the committee, said although lakhs of people, including the mills’ workers and their families, had been suffering immensely because of non-payment of salaries over the past many months, the government remains completely oblivious to the matter, he alleged.

Taking a dig at the state government, he said chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal had a number of times given assurances that the pending salaries would be paid and the mills would be revived, it was nothing but “hogwash”. “Sonowal has betrayed the common people by giving them false hopes and the masses will not forgive him for this,” he said.

A. Bordoloi, general secretary of the Kagaj Nigam Karmi Union, said it was really unfortunate that both the Centre and state government had been negligent towards the defunct mills and not bothered about the problems being faced by the workers and their families.

He stressed that necessary steps be taken so that all the dues are cleared and the mills are made functional soon.

Former legislator of Katigorah Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiya said the government should take prompt initiatives to resolve the issues and save the mills’ workers and their families.

Nearly 1,000 protesters were taken under detention around 11:30pm and released around 1:15pm.