STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: State Labour and Tea Tribe Welfare Minister Sanjay Kishan and BJP MLA Rupesh Gowala have expressed concern over a few tea garden managements mortgaging their gardens in banks and investing that money in other businesses outside the state.
During the Zero Hour, Gowala raised the issue of the Apeejay Group of Tea Estates in the Assembly and said, "This group has 17 gardens with around 30,000 permanent workers. For about three months, the workers of the gardens have not been getting their wages. The group has also not deposited the employers' share of PF (Provident Fund). The government needs to take action against the owner of this tea company.
"The group mortgaged a few of its tea gardens in banks and invested that money in other businesses outside the state."
In his reply, Minister Sanjay Kishan said, "We are holding talks with this group of tea gardens. They repeatedly assure us of clearing workers' dues but have not paid the dues as yet. The dues involving wages, PF shares, part of the bonus, etc., of the workers amount to several crores of rupees.
"The company has mortgaged some of its gardens and invested that money in other businesses outside the state. It is indeed worrying. A few other tea companies in the state are also trying to mortgage their gardens. We need to check this trend. The government gave them lands in the state for growing tea, not for selling or mortgaging the lands for other businesses. However, we cannot prevent this practice with the provisions of the existing Act. We need to amend the Act to give it more teeth to prevent such practices."
Gowala further said, "Protests have started in the gardens of Apeejay group. If the garden owner does not clear the dues immediately, the situation in the garden may escalate into law-and-order problems."
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