New Delhi on Wednesday assured a delegation from Assam of taking “sincere” initiative to reopen the Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills.
‘”We will take concrete efforts so that both the paper mills could be revived,” said the union minister for heavy industries and public enterprises, Arvind Ganapat Sawant.
Sawant gave this assurance after a 10-member delegation representing Assam including union minister Rameswar Tali, Assam’s minister of state for health & family welfare Pijush Hazarika and all other eight BJP MPs from the state met union minister Sawant on Wednesday morning.
Also read: Assam BJP leaders request revival of Nagaon, Cachar paper mills
“The union minister has assured us that he will take all required initiative to revive both the mills…so we are hopeful,” said Assam minister Pijush Hazarika.
The delegation also submitted a memorandum to Sawant.
In their memorandum, the delegation said: “We strongly believe that the scope of making HPC a viable company still exists, if it is run by efficient professional management with proper modernization, technological upgradation and financial re-structuring. This can be carried out by either implementation of PPP model or private takeover initiative.”
Both the paper mills were established in 1978 and they started their commercial production from the late eighties.
The Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad was commissioned in the year 1985, became famous across Asia for its large production capaity and was running till March, 2017.
The production at the Nagaon Paper Mill in Jagiroad stopped since 2015-16 and the mill moved towards ‘closed down’ in March, 2017 due to huge loss.
Similarly, operation at Cachar Paper Mill was suspended in October, 2015.
Workers of both the paper mills are not getting their salary for more than two years.