Assam: Failure to pay for treatment, death of ineffective paper mill employee

Nagaon: An employee of a defunct paper mill owned by the first India Paper Corporation (HPC) in Assam’s Cachar district has died of an illness after failing to pay for his treatment, his union said on Wednesday.

At the same time, 103 employees of HPC have died when its two mills in Cachar and Nagaon became inactive. While the Cachar unit stopped working in October 2015, the Nagaon Mill at Jagiroad became inoperable in March 2017.
The Joint Action Committee of Recognized Union (JACRU) of Nagaon and Cachar Paper Mills said Rajendra Kumar Daloi, a resident of Cuttack, Odisha, died on Monday at the age of 58.

He claimed that he was suffering from kidney related ailments but could not afford treatment due to financial crisis due to non-payment of salary.

The JACRU said this was the 18th death since the Himanta Biswa winter government came to power in May last year.
The Assam government announced on March 28 that it had acquired two derelict HPC paper mills for Rs 375 crore.

The JACRU said that although the Assam government had agreed to a relief package to save the workers, funds were yet to be released.
From January and March 2017, no pay has been made to the staff of Catcher and Nagaon units, respectively.