Nagaon and Cachar Paper mills' employees call for public support

GUWAHATI: The Joint Action Committee of Recognized Unions of the Nagaon and Cachar paper mills (JACRU) has appealed to people to raise their voice on behalf of the employees of the two moribund industries.

According to a statement issued by JACRU president Ananda Bordoloi and its general secretary Manobendra Chakraborty, with the demise due to cardiac arrest of Manindra Chandra Das, an employee of the Cachar Paper Mill, the death toll among the two paper mills' staff since their closure has reached exactly 100.

The JACRU leaders stated that those workers who are alive "are passing days with unbearable suffering, stress, trauma as (they have) lost all hope to live life with human dignity" because the Government has not paid their salaries since the last 61months.

The statement said: "In a Welfare State like India 100 premature deaths occurred, including four due to suicide under various compelling circumstances due to non-payment of salary since last 61 months. Government of India, being the Owner & Administrator of the Industries, remains a silent spectator allowing continuous deaths one after another."

Bordoloi and Chakraborty mentioned in the statement that the Narendra Modi Government repeatedly promised to revive the two paper mills. On 28 September, 2021 an agreement for a relief package for the two paper mills' workers was arrived at between the Government of Assam and the workers' representatives at the behest Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, but it has not been implemented till date, they stated.

They added that in the nine-year period between 2014 and 2022, both the Central and State Government combined as a 'Double Engine Government', but 85 workers of the paper mills died during the tenure of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister and Sarbananda Sonowal as Chief Minister of Assam and another 15 employees have died so far during the tenure of Himanta Biswa Sarma as Chief Minister.

"While natural justice is rejected by native Government and inhuman torture increases, the only option that remains open is citizen's court of national and international communities," the statement concluded.

Also Read:  Auction value of Nagaon and Cachar paper mills keeps falling

Also Watch: