Various unions of the two paper mills in Assam have expressed their happiness over Delhi High Court’s order to disburse 20 per cent of the provident fund (PF) amount of the mills’ employees within one week.

The unions, however, reiterated their demand for payment of all the dues at the earliest.

Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram in Hailakandi district and Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in Morigaon district, both units of Hindustan Paper Corporation, have not been functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively. Their employees have not received salaries for over three years.

Delhi High Court, in a hearing on Friday, ordered HPC’s liquidator and the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation to disburse 20 per cent of the employees’ PF within a week.

Manabendra Chakraborty, president of Cachar Paper Project Workers’ Union, told The Telegraph on Saturday that they had recently filed a special petition in the high court, apprising it of the pitiable condition of the mills’ employees and demanding clearance of all their dues. A hearing was held via video conferencing on Friday in which the court ordered that 20 per cent of the employees’ PF, amounting to Rs 42 crore, has to be remitted by one week. The court ordered that the remaining 80 per cent has to be disbursed by May 21, which is the next date of hearing.

The high court also asked the Centre to submit its response by May 21 regarding the demand made by the union (through the petition) about payment of the employees’ pending salaries.

“We are happy with the court’s decision. But we want all our dues like salaries, gratuity, LIC to be remitted at the earliest,” Chakraborty said.

He said over 60 employees have died since the mills became non-functional, mostly because of poverty, trauma and lack of medical treatment but the government never paid heed to the matter.

“Right from the beginning, the court took the issue very seriously. We are extremely hopeful that the court will rescue us from the troubled waters and alleviate all our miseries,” he said.

Dipak Chandra Nath, general secretary of Cachar Paper Mill Officers’ and Supervisors’ Association, said the court’s order was a “positive development” and had brought some relief for the mills’ staff. “Feels like this is a drop of hope after a long period of despair, anxiety and helplessness,” he said. He, too, demanded clearance of dues soon.

He came down heavily on the government for not fulfilling its promise of reopening the mills and remitting the pending salaries. “The government had made many promises but kept shying away from its commitment, making us suffer immensely for years,” he said.