Silchar Daily丨 News 丨29 December
 |
| SILCHAR 29 DECEMBER |
1. Paper mills revival body to protest in Silchar during Modi’s visit.
SILCHAR: The HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee, a conglomerate of workers’
unions of Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill, will stage a protest on the day of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit In Silchar on January 4. The protest will be
staged in Silchar in connection with the demand of revival of the defunct mills
and payment of the workers pending salaries.Cachar Paper Mill,
the only major industrial undertaking
in Barak Valley, is located at Panchgram, around 24km from Silchar.
while the Nagaon Paper Mill is located at Jagiroad in Morigaon district, around
332km from here.
Manobendra Chakraborty. The committee’s Chief Convener. said on Friday that the defunct
condition of the mills has shoved the workers into a sea of trouble, while the non-payment
of salaries for the past 24 months has added insult to injury. Coming down
heavily on the government, he said though many top leaders of the BJP had given
assurances about reopening of the mills
and payment of pending
salaries, nothing has happened till date. “Chief Minister
Sarbananda Sonowal
had. in the inaugural event of Namami Barak fest, announced that the mills would be
revived and the dues would be cleared, those were "bogus” promises.” he
said."The negligent attitude of the government has left us with no choice
but to hit the streets for our rights and existence," he said, adding that
the protest on January 4 would be a historic movement in Barak Valley. Bahar Islam, another
member, said 49 workers
have died since the mills became defunct and many more
are on the verge of death, but the government shows no urgency in taking necessary
steps to revive the mills or pay the salaries.All Cachar Karimganj Hailakandi
Students Association
founder-president Pradip Dutta Roy had recently sought the Centre’s
intervention so that the CBI probe, being conducted into the cause of
suspension of operations at Cachar Paper Mill, does not face any political pressure.
2. Fire breaks out at Rangirkhari.
SILCHAR: A devastating fire broke out at
Chandicharan Road. Rangirkhari
point on Friday. The fire broke out just opposite to Alo
Chaya studio at around 6 pm in the evening. Sources further stated that few residences, including
godowns have also fallen to the devastating fire. Four fire brigades rushed to
the spot and immediately started to douse the fire. Flames and smoke could be
seen from far. The cause of the fire has not yet been ascertained. It was learnt from some unconfirmed
sources that in one of the Assam pattern structures there exists a sweet making
factory.
Iocals have
aired the view that probably fire broke from one
LPG cylinder. The houses of Pinak
Das, Jagadish Debnath and
Dilip Banik were learnt to have gutted in the fire.
Meanwhile, a huge crowd lias accumulated in the spot. Traffic police team has
reached the spot and is trying to manage the crowd as well as vehicles.
3.International conference off to a good start at
Gurucharan College.
English department in association with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS) is organizing a two daylong international
conference on Traditions of cultural production
in North East India ’ it began on Thursday.Scholar of international repute from
far-flung areas of India, including Germany and America are attending this
conference. His conference was inaugurated by the Registrar of Assam University
Dr Sanjib Bhattacharjee.
- Professor Kailash Chandra Baral of MAKAIAS was the chief guest in the programme. Among the other distinguished guests who graced the occasion included veteran journalist and the president of college governing body Jyoti Ial Chowdhury, Principal of GuruCharan College Professor Bibhash Deb and the Head of English Department Dr Panthapriyo Dhar. A conference of this magnitude is being organized for the first time in Barak Valley, Dhar told. Professor Baral while delivering his speech touched upon the relationship between culture and people. "Each area hits a unique culture of its own. Unknowingly we embrace other’s culture. Even today the raging debate on the copyright of rasagolla is going on between Odisha and Kolkata. If we want to know our own culture, we will have to stand by theside of others," Baral observed.Translation expert John Varte who hails from America is also attending this conference along with one German scholar Katherine Witt.
