CITU demands judicial probe

BOGIDHOLA SHOOTOUT

A STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Dec 14: The Assam State committee of CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) has today demanded a judicial inquiry into Wednesday’s shootout incident by the magement of Bogidhola Tea Estate in Golaghat district where “20 workers were injured and admitted to the Swahid Kushal Konwar Civil Hospital”. Calling the incident a “challenge to the law-and-order situation in the State, the organisation decried the “extreme apathy of the Labour Department over the problems faced by the tea garden employees”. It also alleged that the Department does not carry out investigations as to whether the different tea garden magements have implemented the sections of the Labour Act. It also said that the labourers are exploited by the magement and they are not released the wages. “Their future is also in the dark as many tea garden magements have siphoned off the PF money of the labourers taking advantage of their ignorance and illiteracy. The organisation also said that the labourers are dprived of their due bonuses.

Pointing out that the officials of the Labour Department of the Golaghat district knew that such lapses were going on in the TE since long, and yet the Department did not take the necessary actions. And when the labourers demanded their puja bonus the owners resorted to indiscrimite firing on them.

The State unit of CITU called upon the State Government to ensure that this unfortute incident should be the last of its kind in the State. It demanded immediate release of the State government announced compensation to the injured labourers. Besides it also called for immediate release of the wages and bonus to the labourers of the tea garden. The organisation also asked the State Government to compel the magement of the tea garden to deposit the defaulting amounts of labourers’ PF money at the earliest. It further demanded that the wages of labourers be enhanced to Rs. 350 per day.  The general secretary of the organisation, Tapan Sarma, has submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the Guwahati Police Commissioner.