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Hindustan Paper Mills workers to vacate quarters after dues are paid
On December 23, 2019 Hindustan Paper Corporation’s liquidator ordered the employees of both the paper mills to vacate their quarters by January 31, 2020. The order was stayed by Delhi high court following a petition by Cachar Paper Project Workers Union
The employees of the two closed paper mills under Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd have agreed to leave their official quarters following payment of dues from a ₹570 crore relief fund announced by the Assam government on Monday to clear their pending salaries.
The two paper mills located in Morigaon and Hailakandi districts of Assam have been non-functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively and workers have not received their salaries since then. The proposed relief fund will clear their salaries of the last 28 months along with payment of pension and other funds. The protesting employees have assured that they will release the quarters they have been occupying since their working days after receiving their dues.
On December 23, 2019 Hindustan Paper Corporation’s liquidator ordered the employees of both the paper mills to vacate their quarters by January 31, 2020. The order was stayed by Delhi high court following a petition by Cachar Paper Project Workers Union.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) also asked the Central government in 2019 to consider these two Paper Mills as “going concerns”, suggesting they were viable entities and their employees should not be asked to leave.
But on September 4 this year, Hindustan Paper Corporation’s liquidator Kuldeep Verma issued a fresh order asking the employees to vacate the quarters within 15 days. “The order was issued under Section 33(7) of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016. “The employees are asked to release the quarters voluntarily, otherwise we’ll be bound to use forces to vacate them,” Verma wrote in his order.
The employees cited the petition in Delhi high court and declared that they were ready to face use of force by authorities but won’t vacate their quarters.
The impasse was solved in a three-hour long meeting held between the Assam government and the paper mill employees on Monday evening in Guwahati after the state proposed a relief fund of ₹570 crore to clear their pending salaries and pensions.
“After discussing with the paper mill employees, the state government has decided to provide rupees 570 crore as a relief amount to the employees and workers of the Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd. It has further been decided that the modalities for payment, approval of NCLT etc would be discussed and decided in due course of time after approval of Assam chief minister,” a statement released by the government said after the meeting.
The employees welcomed the proposed relief fund but said they will vacate the quarters only after receiving the money. Nobendu Dey from the family welfare forum of paper mill employees said, “In the past, we got several assurances but we didn’t receive anything. This time, the state government has assured to clear [our] 28 months’ salary, pensions and other pending amounts. Once we get the money, we will leave the quarters.”
Utpal Dutta Chaudhari from Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh said, “This is a welcome step which will give at least some relief to families for now. But this is not the permanent solution and we are going to meet Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma in the coming days.”
Manabendra Chakraborty said, “Our case will continue in Delhi high court till we get everything we deserve. But more than that, we want the production of these two mills to resume, because apart from the direct employees, thousands of people are indirectly dependent on its production. The employees, who have not retired yet, deserve to be relocated in other industries if the government decides to close production of these two mills.”
