The 85th employee of two paper mills of Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) in Assam, awaiting the much-promised revival since their closure in 2017, died on Friday.
The Joint Action Committee of Recognised Unions (JACRU), representing the employees of the two mills, said Amrit Lal Deb died of a liver disease without timely treatment due to non-payment of salary and other dues for 52 months. Before Deb’s death, 84 employees had either taken their lives because of penury or died of hunger or inability to afford treatment for diseases.
Largest in Asia
The Nagaon Paper Mill, about 70 km east of Guwahati, and the Cachar Paper Mill, about 30 km from Barak Valley’s main town Silchar, were two of Asia’s largest paper plants. They were also the fulcrums around which two towns – Jagiroad in Morigaon district and Panchgram in Hailakandi district – grew and prospered.
But the graph of the two mills began heading south three decades after they were established to showcase an “industrialised Assam”. About 2,400 employees have gone without pay since the Cachar mill closed down in January 2017 and the Nagaon mill two months later.
“Deb and his family had been struggling to survive after he retired in December 2018. He did not die, he was killed because of the government’s draconian policy of starving once-viable industries and their employees to death,” JACRU president Manobendra Chakraborty told The Hindu .
4 lakh affected
JACRU leader Ananda Bordoli said the closure of the two mills affected more than 4 lakh people who were directly and indirectly dependent on them.
“We would like to remind Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal of their promises to revive the paper mills prior to the 2016 Assembly elections. This was not all; Mr. Modi had addressed a huge rally near Cachar Paper Mill on March 27, 2016, and said he was committed to reviving 32,000 closed industries in Assam,” said Mr. Chakraborty.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had made similar promises while campaigning for the BJP during the three-phase Assembly elections that concluded on April 6, the JACRU said.
