Guwahati: In yet another unfortunate incident, another employee of the Cachar Paper Mill situated in Hailakandi district of Assam died.
The deceased employee has been identified as Shyam Nayak and a resident of Retired Colony in Badarpur in Karimganj district.
He breathed his last at the age of 63 at around 2-AM at Silchar Medical College and Hospital on Thursday midnight.
With this, the death toll of employees at the paper mill has risen to 113.
According to reports, Nayak was suffering from was suffering from Liver Disorder and many other diseases.
He was deprived of his salary for the last 72 months.
This was informed by Manabendra Chakraborty, president of the Joint Action Committee of Recognized Unions (JACRU) on Saturday.
“With such a severe ailment, Nayak, who was staying at a rented house failed to afford desired treatment in time due to financial crisis owing to nonpayment of salary for the past 72 months by Government of India and finally he died,” Chakraborty alleged.
“The death toll of our colleagues has risen to 113 now including four instances of committed suicides. We feel that the onus of all such deaths rests on the Government of India and the former Chief Minister of Assam respectively who failed to resolve the crisis in time. The workers of the two paper mills under HPC, those of whom are alive, are passing days with unbearable suffering, stress, trauma and lost all hope to live life with human dignity as the Government of India is yet to remit our salaries lying pending since the last 72 months now. Fortunately, in a recent move, the State Government headed by Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma came forward with a relief package and started disbursement of the Relief Package which includes a portion of our salaries from the Government of Assam to save lives. We echo our demand that the Central Government must remit the complete dues at the earliest,” the JACRU president claimed.
Notably, the two paper mills — Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram in Hailkandi district and Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in Morigaon district — have been non-functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively.