HT Correspondent

JAGIROAD, June 7: The Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions (JACRU) constituted for revival of both the Nagaon and Cachar paper mills and expressed their heartiest gratitude to Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s assurance of releasing salary & arrears of the workers of both the paper mills on priority basis.

It may be reiterated that the liquidator Kuldeep Verma expressed interest to take over HPC and therefore, sought 1 months’ time for formulation of the Proposals & Revival Plan, the Unions stated.

The Unions pointed that HPC paper industries of Assam besides other movable & immovable assets having land of more than 2,000 acres in the state of Assam which come under the jurisdiction & subject matter of state & prior to auction notice issued was obligatory on the part of liquidator to seek NOC from the state of Assam.

However, it is not known whether the said permission was sought by the liquidator or allowed by authorities of the state government, if not, the state govt. has all rights & jurisdiction to interfere into the matter to terminate the auction process legally for selling or buying of land, the seller or the buyer is duty bound to obtain NOC from the state government through entrusted authorities, the Unions stated.

“It is also pertinent to mention here that the land of the state was allotted for special purposes for installation of Industries aiming with industrial development, socio-economic growth & employment generation and if the purposes are diluted or diverted the state has all rights to take back the land at any point of time, because the land is not for sale but for utilisation on special purposes,” a press release said.

The Unions further pointed out that Hindustan NewsPrint Ltd installed in Kerala is one of the subsidiaries of HPC while about to be liquidated. The Kerala govt ordered an injunction on the land of their state and later took over HNL from NCLT and now the Kerala govt is initiating all necessary steps to restart production at HNL.