In a major breakthrough, the NCLT Delhi Bench has rejected the liquidator's plea for permission to liquidate assets of Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited which includes Cachar and Nagaon Paper Mills.
In this connection Joint Action Committee for Registered Unions (JACRU) showed its confidence that the newly sworn in chief minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma through "his dynamic leadership qualities will be able to revive the paper mills".
In a press release issued by JACRU on Wednesday stated that, the bench has not only rejected the plea of the liquidator Kuldeep Verma but it has also ordered the liquidator to follow the order of Appellate Tribunal NCLAT passed on May 29, 2019 to ensure that HPC remain an ongoing concern.
Notably, due to nonpayment of Rs 98 lakhs claims of Alloy & Mental Pvt Ltd, the NCLT ordered liquidation of assets of government owned HPC.
The release mentioned that the NCLT Delhi Bench pronounced an Order on April 26 this year and the union received the copies of the order on May 11, which clearly rejected the petition of the liquidator.
"This Order is a hope for revival of the industries regains momentum," JACRU mentioned.
The release also stated that the union, "is confident that the government in Centre and State will take all initiatives on war footing strategy to release pending dues of the workers to arrest further deaths and will revive the Industries to reestablish lakhs of employments for the unemployed youths".
"The test time begins for Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma to prove his credibility as dynamic and unparalleled," and the union believes, "All will be well in this new era of governance and the issues would be resolved without further delay".
Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill have been non-functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively and the workers have not received their salaries for more than three years. Moreover, 85 workers have attainted untimely deaths and over two lakh families have lost source of employments.
It may be further mentioned that the Sarbananda Sonowal led-Assam government vide their application dated 10-09-2020 expressed their interest to take over the assets but besides repeated adjournment, the Government failed to submit their final plan or proposal to the liquidator or before NCLT, the release added.