From Our Special Correspondent
GUWAHATI: The Cachar Paper Mill Officers and Supervisors Association has requested the liquidator for Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd (HPCL) to withdraw or keep the order for vacation of the residential quarters in abeyance till the legitimate claims and relief of all employees of the mill at Panchgram are settled.
In a letter to HPCL liquidator Kuldeep Varma on Tuesday, the association alleged that the order/notice issued on December 23, 2019, for vacation of the quarters by January 31, 2020, was “inhuman and prejudiced” given the prevailing circumstances with employees of the mill in a distressed condition in the wake of non-payment of salaries for over 36 months now, besides other pending dues and claims.
The association also mentioned in the letter that it had also filed a writ petition in Gauhati High Court for settlement of the legitimate claims and relief and that the matter was under the consideration of the court.
Production in Cachar Paper Mill has been suspended since October 20, 2015, while operations at another HPCL facility, viz. Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad, came to a halt on March 13, 2017.
The National Company Law Tribunal (Delhi branch), had in November 2019, ordered for liquidation of the two non-operational mills as neither the government of India, being the sole owner of HPCL, nor any other party came forward to run them.
“No system or rule permits any one to throw the helpless employees to the road, snatching away their only shelter (quarter/accommodation), that, too, without making any payment of their legitimate dues. Employees of the Cachar Paper Mill are firmly determined to resist any move from any corner for vacation of quarter unless their all legitimate claim and relief are settled,” Dipak Chandra Nath, general secretary of the association, stated in the letter.
Nath further appealed to the liquidator for withdrawal of the order or keeping the notice in abeyance till the pending dues and claims are settled, considering the plight of the employees and the prevailing situation.
It may be noted that the Assam industries minister had recently assured that the HPCL employees need not vacate the residential quarters by January 31, 2020, even as the Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions (JACRU), Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills, Assam was unconvinced and asserted that the state government should submit a petition before NCLT against the tribunal’s order to vacate the official quarters.