Guwahati, Sept 21: The Assam Trinamool Congress on Wednesday threatened to stage a series of agitation across tea estates of the state from October if the Assam government does not increase the daily wage of tea workers to Rs 351.
Currently, the daily wage of a tea worker in Brahmaputra Valley is Rs 235 while in tea estates located in Barak Valley, a worker gets a daily wage of Rs 210.
“The daily wage of tea workers in Assam should be hiked much like what the West Bengal government has done. The BJP-led government in Assam has been promising to increase the daily wage of tea workers to Rs 351 but so far has not lived up to it. In other words, the BJP has been using the tea workers in Assam as a vote bank. But the party has no time to think about uplifting the lives of the tea workers,” Dilip Kumar Sharma, chairman, media department, Assam Trinamool Congress said here on Thursday.
“In contrast, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal has been empathetic in regard to the lives of tea workers and hence increased their daily wages by Rs 18,” Sharma said.
The Bengal government had announced an interim hike of Rs 18 in the wages of tea garden workers, increasing their wages to Rs 250.
The Assam Trinamool Congress leader further threatened of launching a series of protests across tea estates of Assam from next month if the daily wages of tea workers are not hiked soon.
Reportedly, the Assam chief minister is likely to chair a meeting of tea planters and tea workers’ organisations on Friday in regard to fixation of tea wages.
Notably, the state government had previously increased the daily tea wage from August 1, 2022. Accordingly, the daily wage of tea garden workers in the Brahmaputra Valley was hiked from Rs 205 to Rs 232 while the same in Barak Valley was increased from Rs 183 to Rs 210.
It may be mentioned that organisations representing tea workers in Assam have been demanding a daily wage of Rs 351 for a long time.
