AASAA calls Assam bandh

ATTSA threatens ACMS of stopping labourers' contribution to Sangh

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 10: A please-all daily wage for tea estate labourers in Assam continues to elude the parties concerned, prompting the All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam (AASAA) to call an Assam bandh on May 15 and the Assam Tea Tribe  Students' Association (ATTSA) to threaten the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) of stopping labourers' contribution to it forthwith.

The AASAA called a 12-hour Assam bandh in protest against the ACMS and the Consultative Committee of Planters' Association (CCPA) fixing a daily that is not at all acceptable to the labourers. The wage fixed by the CCPA and the ACMS, according to the AASAA, is much less than the minimum wage in the state.

Meanwhile, the ATTSA today demanded of the government, the  CCPA and the ACMS to fix the daily wage of tea estate labourers at Rs 300 a day at the meeting scheduled to be held on May 16. Besides leaders of the CCPA and ACMS, representatives from the State government, ABITA, TAI, BCPA and the NETA will attend the meeting.

ATTSA president Prahlad Goala says that the meeting held between the CCPA and the ACMS on April 20 last was a pre-planned drama. The meeting was chaired by State Labour Commissioner-Secretary JB Ekka, and attended by representatives of the ABITA, TAI, BCPA and the NETA. "During that meeting, CCPA representatives were bent on not giving a single paisa above Rs 115, but the leaders of the ACMS were silent. This shows that the ACMS has a secret understanding with the CCPA," Prahlad said, and added: "We won't tolerate if the same dram is rerun at the meeting on May 16. We want the wage of tea labourers of the state be fixed at Rs 300 a day, failing which we will be bound to stop the labourers' contribution to the ACMS forthwith."