STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Employees of the defunct Nagaon Paper Mill and the Cachar Paper Mill have not received their salary for the last 56 months. Faced with financial difficulties due to non-payment of salary, many workers of the two paper mills. The number of workers who have died increased to 93 with the demise of Akshay Kumar Mazumder of Nagaon Paper Mill who passed away on August 29, 2021, reportedly due to heart attack.
President of the Joint Action Committee of Recognized Unions (JACRU), Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills, Assam, Manobendra Chakraborty has reacted strongly in this regard. "Akshay Kumar Mazumder was suffering from hypertension and cardiac disease but failed to arrange for necessary treatment on time due to non-payment of salary/statutory dues since the last 56 months. He died at the age of 62 years and did not receive a single penny as retirement dues because the earnings of his entire service life were withheld by the government, forcing him to die without treatment," said Chakraborty.
The JACRU president said that 93 workers of the two paper mills had died and among them, four committed suicide. He said that Akshay Kumar Mazumdar's death was the eight death after the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government came to power in the State.
Both the paper mills are owned by the Central Government-controlled Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL) and are now lying defunct. The Delhi High Court recently ordered the Government of India to file an affidavit before September 28, 2021, "clarifying the intent of the government" regarding revival of Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd. (HPCL).
Chakraborty lamented that the Government of India-owned company had turned into a "death valley".
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