Congress demands relief package for employees of defunct paper mills in Assam

Guwahati, September 6 (NKTV): The Congress on Monday demanded that the Government of Assam should announce a relief package for employees of the two defunct paper mills of the Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL).

Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who has been appointed as the chairman of the party’s Redressal Committee for HPCL employees, said that the liquidator’s notice on September 03 that directed 900 employees to vacate their quarters within 15 days which is “utterly inhuman, ridiculous, preposterous and devoid of any compassionate reasoning”.

“The state government should show solidarity with the employees and come out with a relief package, including revival of the closed mills and payment of all dues to the employees” Bordoloi said.

“As many as 93 employees of the defunct mills had died in the last 58 months” he said. “There are allegations in certain quarters that the reason behind liquidating the paper mills could be because the state government wants to give access to bamboo, the raw material for producing paper, to private companies to make ethanol which has high demand and value” he added.

He also urged the state government to clear its stand regarding the oil wells that exist within the premises of the Cachar Paper Mills in Panchgram.

“The government should not hand over any assets to private parties on a platter and we demand transparency on such deals” Bordoloi said.

Meanwhile, the Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions (JACRU) of both Nagaon and Cachar Mills has written to the liquidator to immediately withdraw the notice as it was in contravention of the order issued by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

Inputs from PTI

Featured Image: Representative (By Mrinmoy Buragohain)