Assam CM urges Modi to provide special package for tea garden community development

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, Gogoi urged to issue necessary directions for providing financial assistance of total amount of Rs 5568.80 crore for the development of tea garden community of the state.

 

Urging for multisectoral special package for the socio-economic upliftment of tea garden community of Assam, Gogoi requested Modi for amendment of the Plantation Labour Act 1951 apart from shifting of the Head Quarter of the Tea Board of India to Guwahati and provision of 12,590 MT of additional food grain monthly to Tea Garden workers at subsidized inclusion of Tea and Tea industry in the State list and posting of regular Chairman and other important officials of the Tea Board.

 

In the letter, the Assam CM said that the tea garden community constitutes around 17% of the State’s population and are concentrated in 793 registered tea gardens scattered across the Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys.

 

“The Plantation Labour Act, 1951 seeks to provide for the welfare of plantation labour and to regulate the conditions of workers in plantations through welfare provisions like wholesome drinking water, conservancy, medical, educational and recreational facilities, housing accommodation etc. to be provided for the workers by the management," Gogoi said.

 

"While the State Government has taken steps for implementation of the welfare provisions of the Plantation Labour Act, it is seen that the tea garden management has not been able to satisfactorily implement the welfare provisions stipulated under this Act as a result of which the socio-economic conditions of the tea garden community are comparatively lower,” he said.

 

“The State Government has notified the draft proposal for enhancing the minimum rates of wages of plantation workers in the Tea Estates to Rs 177.19 for both permanent and temporary workers, exclusive of any fringe benefits enjoyed by workers and their dependents. Moreover, three new schemes have been recently launched, namely, the Chief Minister’s Bagan Ghar Scheme whereby every tea garden worker family will be provided land and financial assistance for construction of dwelling houses; the Chief Minister’s Bagan Jal scheme for providing drinking water, and the Chief Minister’s Bagan Bus Scheme for providing public bus service facilities for the students of the tea garden workers,” Gogoi said.

 

The Assam CM stated that the coverage of tea garden community under the different Government of India welfare schemes is inadequate as tea garden areas have not been separately categorized.

 

“The lower socio-economic indicators of this segment of the populace necessitates that tea garden areas be treated as focus areas by making specific allocation in addition to the normal allocation made to the State on the whole,” Gogoi said in the letter to PM.

 

The Assam CM requested to the Union government to provide Rs. 4048.33 crores as additional allocation for construction houses of 5,39,778 families of tea garden workers on Indira Awas Yojana pattern.

 

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)