The National Company Law Tribunal on Thursday ordered the liquidation of two paper mills in Assam under the state-owned Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited, The Telegraph reported. The order is expected in a couple of days.
The Cachar paper mill has been non-functional since October 2015 and the one in Nagaon since March 2017. Workers at the two units have not received salaries for more than two years. There are nearly 1,200 full-time workers across the two mills, owned wholly by the central government.
An unidentified senior official of the Hindustan Paper Corporation confirmed the liquidation order. “The NCLT has given the order for liquidation,” the official said. “The official order copy is yet to be received. According to norms, the service of all employees gets terminated from the date of passing of the order. We do not know whether to come to office tomorrow or not.”
The official said a committee will be formed to initiate the liquidation process according to the tribunal’s directive. Operational creditors will stake claim first, the official said. The official also said that he did not know when the process is likely to begin.
Manobendra Chakraborty, who is the chief convenor of the Hindustan Paper Corporation Mills Revival Action Committee, told The Telegraph that the “government intentionally dealt with the process in such a manner that the matter reached the court” and let the units be taken over by private parties. The committee is a conglomerate of workers’ unions of the two paper mills.
“Promises made by the government, including Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal about the mills’ revival and payment of pending salaries were nothing but hogwash,” he said. Chakraborty, who was present at the tribunal hearing on Thursday, said the committee would decide on a course of action after receiving a copy of the order.
He said 55 employees have died since the two mills stopped functioning. “The government has killed all these people,” he said. “Many more are on the verge of death.”
Most recently, Biswajit Mazumdar, a 35-year-old manager at the Nagaon paper mill, committed suicide by hanging himself at a staff hostel on April 29, The Indian Express reported. He was reportedly worried about expenses of children’s education.
Also read: ‘Why are you such a liar?’: Assam’s unpaid paper mill workers are angry with Narendra Modi and BJP
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