MP demands fund for tea workers in Assam

New Delhi: The plight of tea estate workers on Friday found a voice in Lok Sabha with Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi called for release of welfare funds for the health and education of the children and women.
“There are 789 tea garden in Assam state in which workers from Cooch Behar and Odisha have come and settled for long time and they have become an integral part of the Assamese culture,” Gogoi said during Zero Hour.
“However, the owners of these tea estates mostly have their headquarters in Kolkata, West Bengal, and they do not adhere to the labour laws under the tea plantation act,” the MP said, complaining of neglect.
He also called for shifting of headquarters from Kolkata, arguing Assam was the producer and supplier more than 30 per cent of the tea in India and it was only proper that the headquarters should be there.
The MP said the Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani during her last visit had promised opening 14 Navodaya Vidyalayas.
“The children of these worker have now grown up and are intelligent. We hope to see Irani keep her word,” he said. There are more than 40 lakh workers in 789 tea gardens in the largest state of Assam in the North East. (UNI)