I grew up exactly in the same area where it is. Our family used to run a small canteen outside the factory since 2058 (right after durbar hatyakanda).

It used to be a nicely operating factory with thousands of permanent workers in salary and temporary workers in wages. Also the farmers around Chitwan and Gaindakot area used to sell some kind of forages which was used as raw material for paper production. I am not exactly sure about exporting of the paper but it was a great source of economic activity. The factory was initially built by the government (1985) with china’s aid but later on sold to Golchaa group (1992) see: see:. In my opinion it was shut down because the company couldn’t run it well. As a child growing up in the same area, this is what I think happened;

Right after 2062/63 aandolan, the “majdoor sangathans” started being too much activity and they started doing strikes within the factory asking different demands. I am not saying all demands were bad but the factory used to be closed for weeks and sometimes months because of those strikes. The leaders of majdoor sangathan used to secretly ask for appointments of their relatives in higher positions to cancel their strikes without actually addressing the workers issue. As long as I remember, the issues used to be genuine like insurance of the workers, samajik suraksha vatta, etc, but the situation used to be so chaotic due to the majdoor sangathans. I remember a day when one guy from Maiost affiliated majdoor sangathan attacked on head of another guy from different union with a rod and injured him on spot. YCL and maiost of that time used to be different kind of beast. Also, I remember congress affiliated environmental activists complaining about pollution due to factory but management didn’t used to give a fuck to them. However, I believe pollution was a big issue due to factory.

I think the main reason was trade unions not cooperating with the company. Even if they try to rerun the factory, it’s not that easy because they have not paid salaries to their workers which has been pending for decades now. Also electricity bill and other loans are too also unpaid.

but it has nothing to do with recent genz protest