Fumed with Government's silence on the fate of the two closed Paper mills under HPC, over 100 employees under the banner of the Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions (JACRU) and other unions of the employees sieged the residence of Silchar MLA Dilip Kumar Paul at Ambikapatty demanding a clear response.
"Closure of the two paper mills at Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram and Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad have dragged our lives in great jeopardy. At least 80 fellow employees have lost their lives due to lack of treatment owing mainly due to fund crunch on the part of their families while employees of the mills have not received their salaries for close to 50 months. We want a clear response from the Government on the status of the mills or else they must shoot us to death," cried the protesting employees of the mills.
At a time, police and security personnel were seen around the residence of the MLA to avert any unwanted development.
On the other hand, responding to the situation, the Silchar legislator has assured the irked employees of appraising Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in yielding a plausible solution at the earliest. "I have informed honourable Chief Minister sir regarding the demands made by the mill employees and he has asked me to rush to Guwahati soon for a detailed discussion and workable solution on this. I hope a solution to the issue will be drawn soon," Paul said.
However, with the assurances conveyed by the local MLA, the protesters called off the agitation as they said the Government must solve the issue by responding to the demands before the election or else they would resort to vigorous protests in the coming days.
