BJP not fulfilling their promises: Assam Tea Tribe Students Association

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Assam Tea Tribe Students Association (ATTSA) on Tuesday slammed the State government for ‘not fulfilling their promises’.

Addressing a press meet here, ATTSA president Dhiraj Gowala said that even 20 percent of the funds allotted to the tea tribes in the State budget 2019-20, has not been utilized by the government.

The president said that Rs. 3 crore scholarship for pre-metric students and Rs. 6 crore for post-metric students was allotted but not a single student received any financial assistance. He said Rs. 50 crore was allotted for the development of around 420 lower primary schools which are being run by the Tea Garden Management. But still, the situation of these schools is the same as around 80 to 90 students of different classes study in a single classroom. To improve higher education, the government announced that around 200 residential schools will be opened; however, until now not a single school has been opened. “As per the budget, Rs. 10,000 will be awarded to students who will pass the class 10th exams, but the students didn’t receive a single penny. There are around 80,000 students who belong to the tea community and the government has not taken a single initiative to train the teachers who educate these students. The daily wage of a teacher and a tea worker stands the same at Rs. 167. The government should increase the daily wage of these workers as the job cardholders earn more money than them. Sunday is a holiday for these works but why do they don’t get receive their daily wage for the day”, Gowala added.

Talking about the death of 160 people of the tea community by consuming bootleg liquor last year, Gowala demanded the Assam government to make the inquiry public. “It has been one year, but till now the government has not made the inquiry public. The cabinet banned the selling of ‘laal gur’ but till now it is being openly sold in the tea tribe regions. The branded bootleg liquor is also openly sold despite the ban”, he added.

ATTSA secretary Praban Bedia said that the tea tribes are being ignored by the government every year. “Earlier, the tea tribes believed in the Congress, but they betrayed them and after that BJP gave them hope of all-round development. Thus, the communities have faith in BJP till now, but the government has not yet been able to fulfill its promises. Before these parties, the AGP (Asom Gana Parishad) also didn’t do anything for the community”, Bedia added.

The ATTSA held an executive meeting on Monday during which it announced that they will stage demonstrations from March 2 to 5 with their slew of demands. The body said that the demonstration will be held at the offices of associations of tea companies and on March 17, protest will be held in front of every DC office in the region.

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