Cachar Paper Mill in dire straits

Correspondent
HAILAKANDI, April 29 – The sudden sacking of 1,200 contract labourers and the closure of Cachar Paper Mill (CPM) of Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) in Panchgram area of Hailakandi district has created deep resentment throughout Barak Valley. The authorities of the mill have also stopped the production of the mill from Monday and the same will be continued till next one week, the sources said. The sources also said that the decision had to be taken due to the extreme scarcity of the supply of raw material bamboo.

The supply of bamboo has remarkably been decreased from the last one week as the NF Railways have suspended the plying of trains in the Lumding-Silchar route due to the series of militant attacks on both passenger and goods trains.

The bamboo coming through truck is not sufficient to run the mill, the sources said. And if this continues the future of the mill seems to be bleak, the sources lamented.

It may be mentioned here that the Cachar Paper Mill (CPM) is the only major industrial undertaking in south Assam and the adjoining states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura. Despite lack of infrastructural facilities in a remote location, CPM has a continuous record of steady improvement. During 2006-07, the mill recorded the highest annual production of 1,03,155 MT registering over 103 per cent capacity utilisation, which was 100 per cent during the previous year. The annual capacity of production of mill is 1,00,000 tonnes.

After the sacking of the labourers and the closure of the mill, the recognised trade unions of HPC have reacted strongly and threatened to start massive movement against the decision of the authorities. The General Secretary of the mill unit of INTUC, Manabendra Chakraborty informed that they will discuss the present situation of the mill in a joint meeting of all the trade unions on April 30 and will decide the next course of action.

On the other hand, the Vice-President of Paper Mill Contractual Labourers Union, Gautam Tarafdar alleged that due to the sudden sacking of 1200 contractual labourers of the mill on the pretext of the suspension of the production is very inhuman. He said that due to this these labourers are now passing their days without food with the children and they also don’t have any alternative sources of income. He demanded immediate engagement of these labourers on humanitarian ground.

Senior Manager of the mill, Arabinda Chakraborty informed that the production will resume immediately if the rail communication resumes in Silchar-Lumding track. The Manager (Legal), S Ramji also has the similar version. They informed that the mill requires 300-350 tonnes of bamboo daily for the production of papers but now they are only getting 150 tonnes daily. They, however, informed that the tender will be given soon for the supply of 50,000 tonnes of bamboo. ASSAM TRIBUNE