Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court has suspended the Central government’s order to stop supply of additional quota of food grains (rice and wheat) to Assam for providing subsidised ration to tea garden workers in Assam. Taking up a writ petition filed by the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), the most influential tea workers’ union in Assam, a Bench of the court headed by Justice AK Goswami on Wednesday placed under suspension the Centre’s order doing away with the supply of ration to tea workers.The court has fixed January 21 as the next date of hearing for the case.The ACMS has made four respondents in the cases – the Government of India, Government of Assam, Director of Food and Civil Supplies (Assam) and Food Corporation of India.The ruling is a reprieve to the tea garden managements who had already started buying ration from the open market at higher cost as the ration forms part of the Daily wage given to tea workers . Following a decision by the Consultative Committee of Plantations’ Association (CCPA), the tea companies had started buying ration from the open market at double the price for the first quarter of the year – January to March.
The tea gardens are paying more than double the price now. Earlier, the ration (rice) was provided by the government (from the PDS stock) at Rs 800/900 per quintal. Now, the gardens are buying it at Rs
2,000/2,200 from the market.The Centre has stopped the ration supply from PDS stock contending that under no provisions are the labourers entitled for the subsidised ration. The Centre had advised the tea companies to procure the ration from the market. So far, the garden authorities have been procuring ration items from the State government through Food Corporation of India.Rice and flour (all PDS items) have been provided at the rate of 55 paise per kg of rice/wheat to the tea workers. About 12,500 MT of ration are distributed among 19,28,719 tea labour-ers per month in the State. An adult tea worker is entitled for 6.92 kg of ration every week in addition to the monetary component of the wage.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has welcomed the court order and said the State government had been requesting the Centre to continue the ration supply at least till the National Food Security Act comes into force in Assam as it will also cover tea workers. Senior Congress leader from tea tribe community and former Union minister Paban Singh Ghatowar has also hailed the court order.The under the present system, which has been continuing for more than 60 years, Assam governments provides APL rice and wheat to the tea industry (tea estate managements) at subsi-dised rate. The management of the tea gardens, in turn, provide the same to the workers at the rate of 50 to 55 paisa per kilogram.