IMPACT OF OUR POST ON TEA GARDEN WORKERS:: GOVT ACTS PARTIALLY.

Friends, in less than a week of our post regarding tea garden labours in Cachar being discriminated by their owners, quoting Swami Agnivesh, the Cachar administration has decided to act.

Our post had rattled Dispur - specially MLA's like Ajit Singh and Dinesh Prasad Goala - both depending heavily on tea-garden votes, After a marathon meeting, it was decided upon that the Deputy Commissioner, Cachar would instruct tea planters in the Barak Valley to pay Durga Puja bonus by September 30.

Accordingly, DC (Cachar) Gokul Mohan Hazarika, during a meeting of the management, workers’ unions and the administration on the issue of bonus held in his office on Friday, also asked the management to negotiate over the rate of bonus with the unions and announce the quantum by September 22.

Representatives of Tea Association of India (TAI), Barak Valley branch, and Indian Tea Association (ITA), Surma Valley branch, stressed that that their effort will be to pay this year’s quantum of Puja bonus more then what was paid last year.

The quantum of bonus given by the managements of 104 tea gardens in the Barak Valley last year ranged from 8.33 per cent to 20 per cent, a source said.

Addressing the meeting, representatives of the trade unions said all gardens in the Barak Valley have registered profit during last year and a boost in price of the Barak Valley tea was reflected at the Kolkata Tea Auction Centre (KTAC) and Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC). So, the workers are hopeful of a hike in the quantum of Puja bonus this year, they said.

The bonus issue was just an eye wash, as the basic demands of the labourers were not addressed. It is wellknown that propreitor's of tea estates pay crores to the coffers of politicians and political parties.

Swami Agnivesh was quoted: "they get minimal wages in comparison to other parts of the country and are exploited both by the state government and the proprietors of tea estates as there is a strong nexus between them. The daily wage of labourers here is only Rs 72 while in tea estates of south India it is Rs 135 and in Brahmaputra Valley it is Rs 85 per person." 

Agnivesh asked the reason for such discrimination by proprietors and the state government towards workers of Barak Valley when workers in the tea gardens across the country do the same kind of work. He said that tea was one of the most profitable industries in the country and it was very unfortunate that the workers were being discriminated and exploited.