Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) president Paban Singh Ghatowar expresses concern over tea estates

Staff Correspondent

Dibrugarh: Assam Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) president Paban Singh Ghatowar has expressed his serious concern over the report published in a section of media that Abu Dhabi based BR Shetty group, the owner of Assam Tea Company India Limited (ATC, India), one of the oldest tea estates in the State having 14 tea gardens, was under a state of insolvency due to alleged financial irregularity.

In a letter written to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the ACMS president said that such report of the BR Shetty group certainly made them uneasy and compelled to think about the fate of more than 50,000 permanent and irregular labourers engaged in 14 tea estates of Assam Tea Company India Limited here. Ghatowar expressed apprehension following development in the BR Shetty Group in Abu Dhabi and said that it would certainly affect not only the lives of the labourers of Assam Tea Company but also affect more than 2 lakh people directly or indirectly associated with 14 large tea estates of ATC India Limited.

“What surprises us most is that till today authorities of Assam Company have not issued any statement to this effect,” Ghatowar added.

Once known worldwide for its rich produce, Assam Tea Company was purchased by Jajodias decades ago but financial irregularities and non-judicious investment of its profit to other business and mismanagement had put the company in dire straits.

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