Govt has taken steps to protect the interest of Tea Community’s future generations: CM Sonowal

CM inaugurates phase II of 'Asom Sarkar Chah Bagicha Dhan Purashkar Achoni'

Guwahati: “The tea community has made lots of contribution to the greater Assamese society and the young generation of the community must take it upon themselves to bring about transformation through education and knowledge. Our government is committed to facilitate the required infrastructure for ushering in a period of development in the tea garden areas. The line sardars also have a crucial role to disseminate information about various schemes launched by the state government for tea community.” Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today said while inaugurating the second phase of Asom Sarkar Chah Bagicha Dhan Purashkar Achoni at Sarusajai Sports complex in the city.

Notably, during the first phase of the scheme, an amount of Rs 2,500 was deposited in 7 lakh bank accounts of members of tea community of 752 tea gardens in 26 districts of the state. In this second phase, the same amount would be deposited in the bank accounts by the state government.

The chief minister also launched the scheme for distributing smartphones to a total of 11,858 line sardars of the state along with the distribution of non geared scooters to meritorious girl students, handing over of admission letters to 200 girls for GNM courses, scholarships to pre-matric and post-matric students etc.

Calling on the young generation of tea community to empower themselves with knowledge to excel in today’s competitive environment, Sonowal informed about various initiatives launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi like Skill India, Startup India, Digital India etc for youth empowerment and young generation must acquire skills to take advantage of the positive situation arising out of central government’s big investments in the natural oil and gas sector.

CM Sonowal also urged them to follow the footsteps of tea community leaders like Simon Singh Horo and Santosh Kumar Topno in working for the betterment of the community.

Addressing the occasion, Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that state government has organised this programme to create awareness about the various schemes launched by the state government for the tea community. He also highlighted the budgetary provisions kept for the tea community’s development in this year’s budget. Minister of State for Labour and Tea Tribe’s Welfare Pallab Lochan Das, MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa also spoke on the occasion. MP Rameswar Teli, MLAs Bolin Chetia, Teros Gowala, Chakradhar Gogoi, Bimal Bora, Rituparna Barua and a host of other dignitaries were present on the occasion.