No Salary For Five Years: Another Paper Mill Employee Dies In Assam, Tally Touches 89

An employee of the now-defunct Cachar Paper Mill of the Hindustan Paper Mill Corporation passed away on died on Sunday, June 13, in Panchagram in Assam's Hailakandi. With this, the toll after the closure of two mills has mounted to 89, including four suicides.

Abdul Hanan was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. Cachar Paper Project Workers and Employees Union (Independent) general secretary A R Mazumder alleged Hannan passed away as he could not afford treatment because he had not been paid their salaries for the last five-and-half years, reported India Today.

While the Cachar Paper Mill was shut without any notice since October 20, 2015, the Nagaon Paper Mill was shut without any notice on March 13, 2017. The two mills employ more than 1,200 people. They have not been paid their salaries for more than five years. During its heyday, both the mills used to produce about 2,00,000 tonnes of newsprint. They were considered to be Asia's largest paper plants. Things started going downhill about three decades ago.

Both Mills To Go Under The Hammer

Both the mills are set to go under the hammer as it will be e-auctioned as scrap on June 30. As per the auction notice, the reserve price has been set at ₹ 1,139 crores, the EMD amount has been set at ₹55 crores, and the minimum incremental bid is ₹ 1 crore.

Notably, Amit Shah, in one of his election campaigns in the state, had said that the BJP-led government will not only revive the paper mill but augment paper production, increase bamboo production in Assam and scale-up paper distribution all over India. Meanwhile, the Assam Congress urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the auction notice.

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