Once a thriving center of employment, Panchgram now faces desolation as the closure of the Cachar Paper Mill leaves its residents grappling with poverty and despair.
Panchgram in Barak Valley was once a storehouse of jobs with the Cachar Paper Mill providing over one lakh direct and indirect employment, but the town now lies in veritable ruins and its residents don’t even “want to die” there.
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In the once-bustling town in Hailakandi district, an air of eeriness now hangs heavy over it; residents once well-to-do are now battling penury and accuse the government of “murdering” many of them by forcing poverty on them.
Before the last nail was driven in the Cachar Paper Mill’s coffin, it was the only major industrial undertaking in south Assam and the adjoining states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura. Despite lack of infrastructural facilities in a remote location like Panchgram, the mill recorded a continuous steady improvement.
During the year 2006-07, the mill recorded the highest annual production of 1,03,155 MT paper registering over 103% capacity utilisation, which was 100% during the previous year. Established in 1975, along with Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in Nagaon district, the Cachar Paper Mill was conferred with the Mini Ratna status by the Centre.
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Thirty-seven kilometers away from Silchar airport, Panchgram presented a modern-day picture of wellness with private vehicles filing the streets, houses and buildings sparkling with lights et al; faces around mirrored a feeling of contentment.
“All that seems like a distant dream now. At times, I wonder, did we actually live a life like that?,” says 55-year-old Mandira Devi, a faraway look in her eyes. “It was a bubble that burst,” she told this correspondent as she got ready to go out to the market to fetch “something” for lunch. Mandira’s husband is among the nearly 2000 who lost their jobs after the mill closed down in 2015 for good and are still waiting for their dues.
The GPlus team visited the mill, deserted and ghostly and nothing to show for its glorious past; just three private security guards stood doing duty at the gate.
One of the security guards, whose father was a prominent contractor of the area and used to supply various services to the mill, talking to GPlus said, “My father has many pending bills with the paper mill and has incurred huge losses,” adding that because of the closure of the paper mill, the entire region has suffered. He said that Panchgram is now a ruined town and people “don’t even want to die here”.
A shopkeeper near the mill said that nine years back he used to earn around ₹5000 per day, now it is hard to earn even ₹200 per day as people now don’t have money.
The water supply connection in the area is non-functional, power cuts is random every day which earlier was very rare in the area, said another resident, Rahul Das.
Das’ father was a worker in the mill and died in 2020. It was a premature death brought about by depression, according to the family.
Shopkeepers at the Panchgram market used to be busy 24/7 but now it lies in shambles and they have to struggle for mere survival. “Many shops have closed down since 2015,” said another resident of the area.
The national highway passing through the town is also known as a “sinking zone” as a part of the road is continuously caving in with the Barak River gnawing away, intensifying during the rainy season; this is multiplying the pain of the area as whatever business the market has now is because of the vehicles passing by on the highway.
People had taken loans and constructed houses to meet the demand for rented quarters from the workers of the mill, and these landowners continue to wait for their unpaid rent, informed one of them, Prabir Das.
But what exactly happened? Why was the paper mill closed?
Manobendra Chakraborty, president of the Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions (JACRU) of the two mills (CPM and Nagaon Paper Mill) talking to GPlus said, “CPM was a profitable PSU owned by Government of India and was operational successfully,” adding the production suddenly stopped on October 20, 2015 without any notice. He said that when the production stopped, there were raw materials worth Rs. 100 crore lying inside the mill.
Chakraborty explained that earlier when production stopped, it used to revive within a month or so, but this time it never revived. He said that the mill provided over one lakh employment directly and indirectly. He said that 1800 employees were permanent workers of the mill when the production stopped. He said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came for campaigning at Kalinagar for the BJP candidate in the assembly elections in 2016, he had promised the mill would be revived. “He also questioned who closed the mill and we were laughing because he was heading the Centre when it stopped production,” said Chakraborty adding that “we voted for BJP in the hope that the mill will be revived”.
Shockingly, from January 2017, the employees stopped receiving salaries and it became a serious crisis, said Chakraborty adding that they somehow managed for a few months, but thereafter life became difficult to live. “Many children of the employees sent outside for higher studies had to be called back because of financial crisis,” he said adding education of the children was destroyed.
“There were 123 premature deaths of employees, including four suicide cases,” said Chakraborty adding, “The government has murdered these people by inflicting poverty on them.”
For the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Amit Shah and former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal came to Barak Valley and once again promised to revive the paper mill, but nothing happened, alleged Chakraborty.
On May 2, 2019 National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) passed an order for its liquidation due to non-payment of ₹98 lakh to a vendor, said Chakraborty adding that it was a sabotage of national asset and criminal conspiracy against the mill. He asked how could it be liquidated for an outstanding of only around ₹1 crore when it had assets worth ₹5000 crore.
He said after moving the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), it passed an order on May 29, 2019 against the order of NCLT saying it could not be liquidated, but could be acquired along with the employees.
Meanwhile, the liquidator sent a notice to the employees to vacate the quarters.
This sent the employees deeper into depression as without salary for so many months where would they go, questioned Chakraborty.
He said that then the employees moved the Delhi High Court and the court in February 2020 passed an order that they could not be evicted from the quarters.
He further said that after Himanta Biswa Sarma became the chief minister the JACRU was called for discussion and an MoU was inked on September 29, 2021 where it was decided that immediate succour would be provided to the employees but they will have to vacate the quarters. “Rs. 269 crore was given to the employees as immediate relief,” said Chakraborty adding that it was nothing compared to their 85-month pending salary.
Asked whether any employee got employment, Chakraborty said, “Ony entry level jobs were given to 64 workers who are young,” but on condition of surrender of immediate relief package. There were 400 claimants, but 200 applied and 64 got jobs on surrendering the relief package.
The Assam government took over the CPM in March 2022 and the fate of the paper mill is yet to be known.
The paper mill is under Assam Industrial Development Corporation now and a senior official looking after it talking to GPlus said, “There are 650 bighas of land under CPM and there is a possibility that 136 bighas will be given to NRL for a venture which will create employment,” the official said adding that the revival of paper mill is yet to be decided by the cabinet but he claimed “Something good will happen” and many employment opportunities will be provided soon.
The employees and the residents are waiting for the last nine years for revival of the mill, and many have died, but it is still unclear why it was closed and what is its fate.
The desolate mill saw yet another election go by, but this time no promise was made.
