SILCHAR: An employee of Cachar Paper Mill died in Silchar on Saturday evening taking the death toll to 109 since the state’s two paper mills stopped functioning.
Sources in the Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions on Sunday said the employee, Anil Baraik (56), a resident of Thaligram in Udharband locality of Cachar district, was suffering from neuro ailments, but could not afford necessary treatment because of financial crisis owing to non-payment of salary for the last 65 months.
He was taken to a private hospital a few days ago after his health deteriorated, but he could not survive and passed away around 10 pm on Saturday, JACRU president Manabendra Chakraborty said on Sunday.
The two mills — Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram in Hailakandi district and Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in Morigaon district, units of now-defunct state-run Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited — have been lying non-functional since October 2015 and March 2017 respectively. Their employees have not received their salaries for the past 66 and 64 months respectively.
According to the mills’ unions, at least 109 employees have died, including four by suicide after the industries became non-functional, mostly because of poverty, trauma and lack of medical treatment.
“However, as a positive gesture, the state government headed by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently came forward with a relief package and started disbursement which includes a portion of salary approximately of about 16 months to save lives,” Chakraborty said.
He also said the irreparable damages already caused earlier are now resulting in premature deaths one after another. “Hence, we feel that the onus of all such deaths rests on the central government and the former chief ministers of Assam respectively who failed to resolve the crisis on time. We reiterate our demand that the central government must remit the complete dues at the earliest,” Chakraborty added.
