Salary unpaid for 5 years, another PSU paper mill employee dies in Assam; death toll now at 89

The two paper mills owned by Hindustan Paper Corporation have been shut since 2015 and 2017 respectively. Their employees who number over 1,200 have not been paid their salaries since then.

An employee of the closed Cachar Paper Mill of the Hindustan Paper Mills died on Saturday at Paanchgram in Assam's Hailakandi, taking the total deaths since the mills closure to 89, including four suicides. The employee, Abdul Hannan, 54, worked in the paper machine department and was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure for the past several months, his family said on Monday. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. Cachar Paper Project Workers and Employees Union (Independent) general secretary A R Mazumder alleged Hannan passed away as he could not afford treatment as he, like all other employees of the mill had not been paid their salaries for the last five-and-half-years.