Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Assam government has taken an in principle decision to provide land rights in tea garden lines to their existing land holders.
Informing the state assembly of this during the Question Hour, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that giving land rights to the tea garden workers in their existing lines (quarters) will help the government make colonies with the required facilities. "Since these are garden owners' lands, we need to talk to them about taking such lands," he said.
The Chief Minister said that the state government allotted Rs 900 crore for the construction of line roads in 900 tea gardens. The central government has also allocated Rs 700 crore for the development of schools and hospitals in tea garden areas in the state, he said.
On the development of tea garden areas, the Chief Minister said, "In its long rule in the state, the successive Congress governments did precious little for the development of tea garden areas. However, our government is doing much for the development of tea garden areas. We've already established 100 high schools in tea garden areas, and we're going to set up 100 more such schools. Apart from this, we're going to set up ten colleges in tea-community-dominated areas of the state. We have reserved a three percent job quota for Tea Tribes and Adivasis."
He further said, "From next year, we will pay cash to eight lakh tea garden labourers for three consecutive years."
A question came from the opposition bench, asking him why the benevolent government is not hiking the wage of tea workers. In his reply, the Chief Minister said, "It's a well-known fact that the ACMS (Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha) and the garden owners together fix the wages of garden labourers. The BJP-led government hiked the wages of tea garden labourers twice after coming to power. We know their problems and hence include them under various government schemes."
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