Didn't vow funds to revive Hind Paper Corp's Assam mills: Centre

New Delhi: The promises made by the BJP to revive defunct paper mills in Assam, which are run by Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd (HPCL), stand exposed after the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises made it clear that there was no budgetary allocation of Rs 90 crore for the HPCL's revival. As per a short affidavit submitted by the ministry's under-secretary Rao Vineet Kumar before the national Company Law Tribunal on May 1, it has been stated that the issue was brought to the notice of Committee of Creditors (CoC) on March 18 this year that there was no approval for a revival plan for HPCL.

The Government document also stated that there was no allocation/ sanction for grant of interim relief of Rs 10 crore to HPCL and there was no approval to make payment of any liability of HPCL on the part of Government. Notably, the BJP's Assam unit leaders had sought votes in the name of revival of paper mills in the Silchar parliamentary constituency. Employees of two HPCL paper mills in Assam have not been paid salaries for about two years after these were shut down without any formal notice.

Recently, a senior engineer working at Nagaon paper mill committed suicide and blamed the Centre for his death as he had not received his salary for the past 28 months.