A CORRESPONDENT
SILCHAR: Assam Tea Tribe Students' Association (ATSA) had threatened mass agitation against the government's move to set up a greenfield airport at Dolu Tea Estate in Cachar district. ATSA on Monday assembled in a meeting at Lalbagh Tea Estate near Dolu, chaired by its central committee member Subir Karmakar and registered the first protest against the government's move to take over the Dolu TE to establish the proposed greenfield airport.
Meanwhile, Sanjeev Rai, a secretary of state Congress too threatened agitation against the move to set up the airport which would render thousands of tea garden labourers jobless. Rai, who contested the last Assembly election from Katlicherra, said the ploy to destroy a flourishing tea garden would not be tolerated at any cost.
It is learnt from the local administration that the government had estimated Rs 50 crore to the owner of Dolu TE which covers 873 acres. According to ATSA source, the garden has nearly 15 thousand permanent as well as contractual labourers in Dolu.
A speaker in today's meeting said that the bread and butter of at least 30 thousand people are solely dependent on this garden. The government had completely ignored the interest of the large labour community. It is to be noted that Silchar MP Dr Rajdeep Roy had recently informed the press that an 'international airport' would be set up in Cachar and on January 1 while interacting with the mediapersons, the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma too endorsed the announcement of the ruling party MP. However none of them had specified the exact place where the airport would be set up.
Later on, a communication from the Dispur to the district administration recently pointed out that the proposed airport would be of greenfield category. ATSA on Monday threatened that if the government overlooks the interest of the labourers, they would be compelled to resort to mass agitation.
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