Bid to ensure PMAY houses for TE workers

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, July 6: At the initiative of Dispur, tea garden owners and labourers are going to strike a happy medium to put an end to the logjam over the issuance of no-objection certificates (NOCs) by the former to pave the way for labourers getting houses under the PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana).

One has to own a plot of land for the construction of a house under the PMAY. However, tea garden workers of the State have no such land.

Talking to the media in Guwahati on Friday, Minister of State for Tea Tribe Welfare (Independent charge) Pallab Lochan Das said: “We cannot provide houses under PMAY to tea garden workers as the garden owners refuse to issue no-objection certificates for construction of houses on their land. Now Dispur is going to initiate a process for reaching a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the beneficiaries (tea labourers) and garden owners. The MoUs to be signed will serve the purpose of NOCs for the construction of tea labourers’ houses under the PMAY,” Das said. Das further said: “Dispur is going to bring tea garden women workers under the Ujala Gas Scheme, besides concretizing all roads in tea estates.”

For a roof over their heads and food, labourers work in tea gardens in the State. However, because of no understanding between tea garden managements and the State Government over the years, tea garden labourers in the State have all along been deprived of shelters under the PMAY. Will they get justice under this move? This is something to keep tabs on.