Dispur deprives ATC garden workers of benefits: ATTSA

ATTSA demands

*    Hike in daily wage of tea estate labourers up to Rs 300 a day.

*    Grant of Rs 10 crore for State-owned ATC gardens.

*    Release of all arrears of tea labourers

*    Selection of Tea Tribe candidates by the APSC

*    Removal of Rakesh Paul as APSC Chairman.

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 22: Members of the All Tea Tribe Students' Association (ATTSA) today staged protest near Dighalupukhuri against, what they said, the State Government's deception to the tea labourers working the Assam Government-owned Assam Tea Corporation (ATC) gardens in the State.

The association said that labourers of the ailing ATC gardens are deprived of benefits which they are entitled to get under the Plantation Labour Act. "The labourers under the ATC gardens are getting daily wage at the rate of Rs 94 a day even as the state government hiked it to Rs 169 a day," the ATTSA members said, and added that the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) has not selected a single candidate from the Tea Tribes in the ACS list, 2013.

The demands of the ATTSA are - hike in daily wage of tea estate labourers up to Rs 300 a day, grant of Rs 10 crore for State-owned ATC gardens, release of all arrears of tea labourers, selection of Tea Tribe candidates by the APSC and removal of APSC Chairman Rakesh Paul.