GUWAHATI: The tea estates (TEs) of Assam have defaulted PF deposits of their labourers amounting to hundreds of crores of rupees – Rs 60.82 crore by 220 private TEs and Rs 211 crore by 19 ATC (Assam Tea Company) gardens.
State Labour and Employment Minister Pallab Lochan Das informed the State Assembly of this on Wednesday while replying to a question from Congress MLA Durga Bhumij during the Question Hour.
Admitting the huge amount of PF default, Pallab Lochan Das said: “We’ve attached the property of a section of TEs and lodged FIRs against them for their PF default. FIRs have also been prepared against another section of TEs. Apart from this, we’ve also attached the property of some other TEs. So far, there are cases against non-release of PF deposits of 1,600 retired TE workers.”
Giving a detailed statistics of PF default, the minister said: “The PF default of 48 TEs in Dibrugarh district amounts to Rs 17.45 crore, the default of 38 TEs of Jorhat district amounts to Rs 6.49 crore, ten TEs of Nagaon district amounts to Rs 6.79 crore, 15 TEs of Tinsukia district amounts to Rs 3.09 crore and 17 TEs of Cachar district amounts to Rs 3.97 crore.”
On the other hand, the minister said that the PF default of 19 of ATC TEs amounts to Rs 211 crore. Pallab Lochan Das, however, said that ATC garden workers retiring till March 31, 2017, have got their PF deposits released.
The minister named some TEs – Fatehabad TE in Baksa district, Bogidhola TE in Golaghat district, Bhuban Valley TE in Cachar district, Tingalibam TE in Charaideo district etc whose property has been attached for PF default.