4 deaths in just 18 days; another employee of Cachar Paper Mill dies

Sept. 10: The procession of deaths of the now defunct HPC mills at Nagaon and Panchgram continues unabated. On Wednesday, another employee of Panchgram Paper Mill breathed his last on 9 September. The deceased employee was identified as Pradip Kumar Roy. As per reports, the employee was under treatment at SMCH after being tested COVID-19 positive. He, however, died at 6 PM on Wednesday. With this, the death toll at HPC Paper Mill has now gone upto 71 including 3 suicides.

On 9 September, Chanak Das (59), another employee of HPC Panchgram breathed his last at around 3 AM. He lived at Panchgram. Expressing anguish & grief, his family members told that living without salary for such a long period has made their lives miserable. Without money, they were unable to afford any treatment of Chanak Das, who ultimately breathed his last due to the ‘apathy of the government on Wednesday morning.’

On 23 August, Gautam Sarkar (58), who worked as a chemist at HPC Panchgram breathed his last at his ancestral home at Dumdum in Kolkata. Just 4 days later, on 27 August, another employee of the same paper mill, Radhanath Roy Choudhury (57) also died in Kolkata after suffering for some days.

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 45 and 43 months respectively.