GUWAHATI: An ailing employee of Cachar Paper Mill, non-functional since the past five years, passed away on Monday night, taking the total number of casualties of the mill, along with that of the Nagaon Paper Mill, to 81.
Rupam Nath Mazumder (55), a technician at Cachar Paper Mill, died after a prolonged battle with cancer at his Hailakandi residence around midnight on Monday.
The Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram in Hailakandi district and Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in Morigaon are units of Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL) and have been non-functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively.
Employees of the two mills have not received their salaries for about four years now, and many of them have died after being unable to bear their medical expenses. Three among the deceased mill employees died by suicide.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Tuesday, Manobendra Chakraborty, the president of the Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions (JACRU) of the two paper mills, said Mazumdar, who is survived by his wife and two children, could not afford proper medical treatment because of financial problems.
The JACRU president slammed the Assam government for not taking any initiatives to revive the two paper mills despite the two state assets lying in a non-functional state since the past four to five years.
“At a time when the Kerala government can take initiatives to take over Hindustan Newsprint Limited (HNL), put up for sale by the central government, why can’t the Assam government revive the mills,” Chakraborty asked.
“Both the Centre and the state government have ignored our pleas and kept us waiting in vain. Employees of Cachar Paper Mill have not received their salaries for 49 months now and yet another employee died after not being able to afford medical treatment,” he rued.