Over 500 workers of the Cachar mill in Assam have raged against the unfulfilled promises of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who while coming in power in Assam promised the people that the Cachar paper mill in the Silchar and Nagaon will be revived. The Chachar paper mill is run by the state-owned Hindustan Paper Corporation. The mill is shut since October 2015. PM Modi in his March 2016 speech promised that if BJP comes to power, the mills would be revived.
Almost all 500 workers from the mill have the PM recording in their phone at Kalinagar, which is barely 10km from the mill on March 27, 2016, which was near the assembly elections in Assam. The BJP came to power in Assam however, the mills remain closed. In March 2017, Nawgong, its sister-unit in Middle Assam’s Nagaon constituency also stopped the production.
Chakraborty. chief convener of the mill revival committee said that there has been no written order till date describing the reasons for shutting down the mill. He said that “this is an autocratic government which has taken all of us for a ride.”
Around 1,200 workers work in the mill owned by the central government. None of the workers of the mills have received their salaries for the past two years while they have been marking present in the absence of a formal order of the closure of the mill. The mill also provided employment to approximately two lakh people, directly or indirectly. Contract laborers, bamboo cutters, suppliers all have faced at the hands of the mill.
On April 11 when PM Modi arrived in a town near Silchar, the workers were restrained from attending the rally. Around 47 workers were detained by the police. In the speech, the mills were not even on a footnote in the speech made by PM Modi.
Nagaon and Silchar constituencies shall go to polls on April 18. The results for the Lok Sabha elections will be announced on May 23.
ALSO, READ
Lok Sabha Polls: Special ‘Sakhi Matdan kendra’ to be set up in Haryana to empower women votership
Lok Sabha Polls: Case filed against Navjot Singh Sidhu for warning the Muslim voters against AIMIM
Shashi Tharoor kick starts election campaign after injury, demands enquiry into the temple mishap