Tea workers bank accounts to be credited with Rs 3,000

GUWAHATI: To propel the process of financial inclusion of tea garden workers, Rs 3,000 will be deposited in the bank account of each worker in 752 tea gardens of Assam under phase-III of the 'Chah Bagisa Dhan Puraskar' scheme during fiscal 2020-2021. As per data, this phase of the scheme will benefit approximately 7.21 lakh beneficiaries.

The Finance Department has already earmarked Rs 220 crores for this scheme, which will be implemented by the 'Tea Tribes Welfare Department'.

When this scheme was introduced during fiscal 2017-18, the State Government provided incentive of Rs 2,500 in each of the bank accounts of tea garden workers — that had been opened after demonetization i.e., between May 8, 2016 and May 31, 20l8.

In phase-ll of the scheme, an additional amount of Rs 2,500 was credited in all such tea garden workers' accounts that had received Rs 2,500 earlier as the first installment.

Mentionably, those tea garden workers who were eligible as beneficiaries in phase-l but could not receive Rs 2,500 as the first installment due to multiple reasons (accounts being rendered 'stop account' due to non-submission of KYC, lack of IFSC Code/ account number mismatch), were separately given Rs 5,000 (Rs 2,500 as part of the first installment and Rs 2,500 as part of the second installment).