Death toll reaches 108 as 1 more employee of Cachar Paper Mill passes away

July 21: The word ‘death’ is sending a chill of horror in the corridors of the now defunct Nagaon and Panchgram Paper Mills. Now the death toll has reached 108 as another employee of the now defunct Cachar Paper Mill embraced death on 20 July.

The employee of the defunct Cachar paper mill of the Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL) died on 20 July, 2022 at around 8.45 PM taking the death tally since their closure to 108. Kamalendu Nath, 57, a resident of Tarapur, Part VII, Silchar was suffering from severe Diabetes, Heart Ailment & other serious complications, but failed to afford desired treatment due to financial crisis owing to non-payment of salary since last 65 months. “Without money, his family was unable to afford good treatment and he ultimately breathed his last due to the apathy of the govt,” said one of the union leaders.

Manabendra Chakraborty, trade union leader of the mill said, “Every worker of HPC, Paper Mills of Assam are passing their days with unbearable suffering, stress, trauma & have lost all hopes to live a life of dignity, while Government of India has not paid their salary since last 65 months. Fortunately, Govt of Assam came forward with a Relief Package & started disbursement of Relief Package includes a portion of Salary approximately of about 16 months to save lives under the kind & dymanic leadership of Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma. It is pertinent to note that the irreparable damages already caused earlier is now resulting premature deaths one after another. Thus the responsibilities of all such deaths rest on the Government of India & earlier CM of Assam, who failed to resolve the crisis at proper time.” With this, the death toll at HPC Paper Mill has now reached 108 including 4 suicides.

The Government of Assam took over the assets of Nagaon Paper Mill and Cachar Paper Mill on 28 March, 2022. The Assam government has paid an amount of Rs, 375 crores and will be distributed by the liquidator as per the norms of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016. 

The mill at Nagaon is spread over 1765 bigha, 33 katha and 24 lessa of land while the one at Cachar occupies 2916 bigha, 1 katha and 7 lessa land, totaling to 4681 bigha, 34 katha and 17 lessa. HPC”s Cachar unit in Panchgram stopped functioning on October 20, 2015, while the Nagaon mill in Jagiroad stopped operations on March 31, 2017. No salary was paid to the staff of Cachar and Nagaon units since January and March of 2017, respectively.

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 63 months inspite of the assurance of the state government to give them their due.