GUWAHATI, March 18: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a poll rally at Bhatgram in Karimganj district on Thursday afternoon, members of the Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions (JACRU) of Nagaon and Cachar paper mills in Assam, reminded him of an “unfulfilled” promise made five years back to revive the non-functional mills.
In a statement to the media, JACRU president Manobendra Chakraborty said, “On behalf of JACRU, I have requested the Prime Minister to recall his commitment made on March 27, 2016 on the revival of HPCL paper mills of Assam.”
The Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram in Hailakandi district and Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in Morigaon are units of Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL) and have been non-functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively.
“As many as 83 workers have been killed since the mills became defunct, four of them by suicide, due to non-payment of salary since the past 50 months…so the Prime Minister should realise that workers are being killed,” Chakraborty said.
“If the Prime Minister does not desire to save lives, let him allow mercy killing for the rest of the workers to save them from government-imposed inhuman torture,” he said.
“Respected citizens will judge what the Prime Minister announces for Barak Valley, as two lakh youths have been rendered unemployed, which is the major issue now,” the JACRU president added.