Assam Congress urges Centre to revive paper mills

Assam Congress, in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call to the nation to be “vocal about local”, urged the Centre to revive the two papers mills in the state for the interest of thousands of employees.

“Both the paper mills were closed down. Thousands of employees have been passing sleepless nights. Revive the paper mills so that people of the state can be self-reliant,” Ripun Bora, president of Assam Congress stated in a letter dashed off to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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It may be mentioned that the Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram in Hailakandi district and the Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in Morigaon district have been non-functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively. The employees have not received their salaries for 38 and 36 months respectively.

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It may be mentioned that the Cachar Paper Project Workers' Union (CPPWU) on May 12 wrote a letter to Prime Minister, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, and State Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, urging to take initiative in reviving the paper mills.  The union had also appealed to PM to take initiatives to revive local and indigenous industries to overcome the 'Economic Disaster' that has emerged due to the D-19 pandemic.

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In the letter, the union stated that two Heavy Industries under Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) of Assam is non-functional whereas India is importing papers from countries like China, South Korea to meet the domestic requirement at the cost of Forex reserve.

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