88th employee of paper mill dies without salary & dues since last 54 months

June 5: Amid the the wake of the official liquidator issuing an e-auction notice for sale of the two paper mills at Nagaon, deaths of the mill employees continued unabated. The word ‘death’ is sending a chill of horror in the corridors of the now defunct Nagaon and Panchgram Paper Mills. On one hand, when the procession of deaths due to COVID-19 is going on unabated, on the other, being deprived of salary since last 54 months, employees of the two HPC Paper Mills are embracing death one after another. The employees of the now defunct paper mills are moving ahead towards the valley of death.

On Thursday, another employee of now defunct Nagaon Paper Mill breathed his last. The deceased employee Dharani Saikia  suffered a massive heart attack and died at the age of 57 years on 3 June, 2021 at 1.30 PM. He failed to afford the desired treatment due to non-payment of salary since last 54 months. “Without money, we were unable to afford good treatment of Dharani Saikia, who ultimately breathed his last due to the apathy of the government,” said one of his relative. It needs mention here that another employee Siraj Uddin Mazumder retired from services without receiving a single penny as retirement dues. He died on 27 May, 2021.

Manabendra Chakraborty, trade union leader of the mill said, “This is the 3rd death since the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government was formed in Assam. These are not general deaths. DharaniSaikia joined the long procession of deaths of our employees without getting any proper treatment. How can you afford treatment when you are not paid your salaries since last 54 months and also they are deprived of retirement dues? How many deaths will wake up the govt from their deep slumber?”  With this, the death toll at HPC Paper Mill has now reached 88 including 4 suicides.

Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill run by Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL) have been non-functional since 20 October 2015 and 13 March 2017 respectively. The employees of the two mills have not received salaries for the past 54 months.