Union Budget 2021: Rs 1000 Cr Allocated for Tea Workers of Poll-Bound Assam & West Bengal

GUWAHATI: Just ahead of the assembly polls in Assam and West Bengal the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the budget said that the BJP- led Centre has allocated Rs. 1000 crore for Tea workers of Assam and West Bengal.

Notably, earlier because of the lockdown both the tea garden industries in the respective states of Assam and West Bengal was hit hard.

According to a statement issued by the Indian Tea Association, more than Rs 2,100 crore was fall in revenue because of the global pandemic.

It is to be mentioned that Assam and West Bengal are both going for the poll in the first half of 2021.

Earlier on January 18, 2021, the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), in protest against the BJP government's 'indifferent' attitude towards the welfare of tea tribes community and its failure to hike the daily wage of tea laborious to Rs 351, as promised in the 2016 election manifesto.

ACMS president and former Union Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar told media persons that more than one lakh tea labourers would participate in the first phase of agitation in Dibrugarh which would be followed by a similar programme at Biswanath Chariali on January 28 and in Guwahati on February 8, 2021.

He said that the daily wage fixation of tea labourers was earlier fixed at the bipartite meeting held among the ACMS and Tea Planters' Association but the process was jeopardized due to notification issued by the government that a government-sponsored committee would fix the wage of labourers.

Ghatowar said that keeping the interest of the tea labourers in view, ACMS not only welcomed the government's steps but hailed the decision of the government to change the daily wage structure of tea labourers from Rs. 167 to Rs.351. However, the government's move for wage hike was vehemently opposed by the planters' community and as a result, the government failed to implement the decision during their tenure of three years in power, Ghatowar said.

Despite ACMS's support to the government's decision, the wage structure of tea labourers remained as it was earlier. Coming down heavily on the government's failure, Ghatowar stated that ACMS turned down Sanjay Kishan's report which suggested Rs. 194 as minimum daily wage for tea labourers.

ACMS demanded Rs 351 as a minimum daily wage for tea labourers. He further stated that due to the government's failure to this effect, tea labourers of the State had been facing the accumulated loss of Rs 13 crores to Rs 14 crore since January 2018.

For this, he held the Sarbananda Sonowal government responsible. "The government has been hoodwinking the labourers by depositing few rupees in the respective accounts of the tea labourers on its whim instead of paying the promised daily wage of Rs 351," Ghatowar alleged.

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