Apeejay Tea depriving workers of basic necessities: ATTSA

A CORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA: The Assam Tea Tribes Students' Association (ATTSA), Talap Branch staged sit-in in front of Apeejay Tea Limited's Registered Office, Talup on Saturday in protest of non-fulfillment of various demands of the tea workers.

Besides not effecting the government approved wage enhancement of tea-labourers to Rs 351 per day, tea major Apeejay Tea Ltd. did not even care to provide the basic necessities of the tea-workers like housing, toilet, health-care and education. This became evident in the memorandum addressed to the Director, Apeejay Tea Ltd., Kolkata by ATTSA, Talap Branch. The memorandum signed by President Ramen Das and Secretary Ranjit Kurmi on July 28 stated that in view of current spiraling price rise, the tea-labourers were unable to make both ends meet unless their wages were enhanced to Rs 351 per day. Again the students' body pointed out that during the last 4/5 years no new construction of labourer quarters, toilets and bathrooms were undertaken by the tea company. So they demanded to construct newly the 50 years old worn out labourer quarters besides constructing twenty new quarters and one hundred new toilets and bathrooms in each tea gardens under it. Again it demanded to appoint adequate number of teachers in the garden LP schools as per ratio of the students.

What is cause for worry for ATTSA is the lack of adequate health-care facilities in the tea gardens. In their memorandum they pointed out that the Central Hospital of the Company in Longsowal which looked after and treated the patients of 17 tea gardens in the past, now referred most of the cases to Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMC & H), Dibrugarh because of lack adequate number of doctors, nurses and medical facilities there. For this the poor tea labourers had to face immense difficulties for treatment of their family members. So ATTSA demanded to fill up the vacant posts of doctors, nurses and pharmacists in the each of its garden hospitals. Its other demands included to fill up the sixteen vacant posts in its Registered Office, Talup and also to fulfill the legal dues of the employees belonging to the tea-labourers' community who, as alleged by them, were deprived of their legitimate rights even after working for 10/15 years.

Moreover, the ATTSA, Rupaisiding Sub-branch, in a memorandum to the Officer-in-charge, Doomdooma Police Station demanded eviction of illicit liquor sale and gambling in Tipuk Dikhana line, near Prabhat T.E. and Daimukhia T.E. In their memorandum they alleged that a few people having vested interest were indulged in this sort of activities taking advantage of 'Akhra' (Cock fighting) in those places. Consequently, the social and educational atmosphere of the area was affected, they alleged. So they urged the Police administration to take adequate measures to evict the sale of illicit liquor and gambling in those places.

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