GUWAHATI, March 11: Ahead of Assembly elections in the state, the Assam Tea Tribes’ Students’ Association (ATTSA) has announced a complete shutdown of tea gardens across the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys on March 22 in protest against the “failure of the government to address the problems of tea workers.”
ATTSA president Dhiraj Gowala on Thursday accused the BJP-led government of wooing tea garden votes by recently announcing a minimum daily wage hike of Rs 50.
“However, the workers are yet to get to enhanced wage of Rs 217 per day till date. The workers have been deprived of their rights and exploited by garden owners for several years,” Gowala said.
The tea workers are demanding a minimum daily wage of Rs 351.
It may be noted that Gauhati High Court had on Tuesday asked the Assam government “not to take any coercive action” against the Indian Tea Association (ITA) and 17 tea companies for not complying with the tea workers’ wage revision notification issued by the labour welfare department. ITA along with the tea companies had moved the court in view of the notification.
Meanwhile, ATTSA has decided to file a writ petition before the Gauhati High Court on the issue.
“Ahead of the polls, we will organise awareness meetings against BJP-AGP alliance in tea gardens. The previous government too had deprived us of our due. Apart from enhanced minimum daily wages, we are yet to get Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, which has been another long pending demand,” the ATTSA leader said.
The tea vote will be a deciding factor for the political parties in about 40 to 42 Assembly seats out of 126 constituencies. Hence, both the ruling alliance and Opposition parties have launched vigorous pre-poll campaigns to reach out to the tea community, which comprises nearly 27 percent of Assam’s population.