Assam Tea Tribe’s Students’ Association (ATTSA) has called for a complete shutdown of all tea gardens in Brahmaputra and Barak valley on March 22. This decision was taken as a protest against government’s alleged negligence towards the tea workers in the state.
The decision comes weeks after the BJP-led Assam government decided to hike the daily wage of tea garden workers in the state by Rs 50.
Speaking to the media, ATTSA President Dhiraj Gowala stated,
“The Assam Government has failed to address the problems of tea workers. It promised to pay Rs. 351 as daily wage before coming to power but never fulfilled that promise.
With Assembly elections near, they gave us a promise and increased our wages by Rs. 50. So, now it is Rs 217.”
Alleging that so much money is just being spent on advertising for elections, Gowala further said,
“We are not beggars; we are asking for what we rightly deserve.”
A protest did come to a halt after February 20, 2021, when the government issued a notification hiking the tea laborers’ wage by Rs 50 to Rs 217.
Prior to that, the State government did hike tea laborers’ wage by Rs 30. When the BJP came to power at Dispur in 2016, the rate of the daily wage of tea laborers was Rs 137. It has been raised to Rs 217 with the latest hike.
On February 21, the Assam cabinet, chaired by Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, approved the proposal to increase the daily wage of tea garden workers to Rs 217.
Recently, in a public meeting held in Sivasagar on February 4, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said his party will give Rs. 365 to every tea garden worker of the state as daily wage if they come to power.
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