Staff Correspondent
DIBRUGARH: The Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), in protest against the BJP government's 'indifferent' attitude towards the welfare of tea tribes community and its failure to hike the daily wage of tea laborious to Rs 351, as promised in the 2016 election manifesto, has decided to launch 'Shramik Garjan' (labour's howl) agitation from January 18.
ACMS president and former Union Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar told media persons that more than one lakh tea labourers would participate in the first phase of agitation in Dibrugarh which would be followed by a similar programme at Biswanath Chariali on January 28 and in Guwahati on February 8, 2021.
He said that the daily wage fixation of tea laborers was earlier fixed at the bipartite meeting held among the ACMS and Tea Planters' Association but the process was jeopardized due to notification issued by the government that a government-sponsored committee would fix the wage of labourers. Ghatowar said that keeping the interest of the tea laborers in view, ACMS not only welcomed the government's steps but hailed the decision of the government to change the daily wage structure of tea laborers from Rs. 167 to Rs.351. However, the government's move for wage hike was vehemently opposed by the planters' community and as a result the government failed to implement the decision during their tenure of three years in power, Ghatowar said.
Despite ACMS's support to the government's decision, wage structure of tea laborers remained as it was earlier. Coming down heavily on the government's failure, Ghatowar stated that ACMS turned down Sanjay Kishan's report which suggested Rs. 194 as minimum daily wage for tea labourers. ACMS demanded Rs 351 as a minimum daily wage for tea labourers. He further stated that due to the government's failure to this effect, tea labourers of the State had been facing accumulated loss of Rs 13 crores to Rs 14 crore since January 2018. For this, he held the Sarbananda Sonowal government responsible. "The government has been hoodwinking the labourers by depositing few rupees in the respective accounts of the tea labourers on its whim instead of paying the promised daily wage of Rs 351," Ghatowar alleged.
Referring to the plight of 5 lakh labourers who have been working in the tea estates of small tea growers, the ACMS president demanded adequate daily wage, bonus, and medical facilities for them. He cautioned the government that if the State Government failed to fulfil their demands on time, the tea labourers would give a fitting reply in the 2021 assembly election. ACMS secretary Rupesh Gowala, member Nabin Keot and other senior leaders of the Sangha were present at the media briefing.
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