ACMS kicks off ShramikGarjan agitation, demands wage hike for tea labourers

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH: In support of their several demands, including hike in their daily wage to Rs 351, a large number of tea labourers under the aegis of the Assam ChahMazdoorSangha (ACMS), assembled at the field of Moncotta Tea Estate on Monday.

As part of the ACMS sponsored 'ShramikGarjan' (labourers' howl) programme, the labourers of Dibrugarh, Sibsagarh, Charideo and Tinsukia protested against the BJP government's 'indifferent' attitude towards the welfare of the tea tribes' community and its failure to hike the daily wage of tea laborious to Rs.351 as promised in their 2016 election manifesto.

ACMS president and former Union Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar, while addressing the gathering, cautioned the government to face the ire of tea labourers if the latter failed to meet the demand of Rs.351 as the daily wage of tea labourers before the oncoming assembly election. The ShramikGarjan agitation, which kicked off here on Monday, will be followed by a similar programme at BiswanathChariali on January 28 and in Guwahati on February 8, 2021.

Ghatowar said that the daily wage of tea labourers was earlier fixed at the bipartite meeting held among the ACMS and Tea Planters' Association but the process was jeopardized due to notification issued by the government that a government-sponsored committee would fix the wage of labourers. Ghatowar said that keeping the interest of the tea laborers in view, ACMS not only welcomed the government's steps but hailed the decision of the government to change the daily wage structure of tea laborers from Rs. 167 to Rs.351. However, the government's move for wage hike was vehemently opposed by the planters' community and as a result the government failed to implement the decision during their tenure of three years in power, Ghatowar said. Despite ACMS' support to the government's decision, wage structure of tea labourers remained as it was earlier.

Coming down heavily on the government's failure, Ghatowar stated that the ACMS turned down Sanjay Krishna's report which suggested Rs. 194 as minimum daily wage for tea labourers. ACMS demanded Rs 351 as a minimum daily wage for tea labourers. He further stated that due to the government's failure to this effect, tea labourers of the State had been facing accumulated loss of Rs 13 crore to Rs 14 crore since January, 2018. For this, the ACMS president held the Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal-led BJP government responsible. "The government has been hoodwinking the labourers by depositing a few rupees in the respective accounts of the tea labourers instead of paying the promised daily wage of Rs.351," Ghatowar alleged.

The meeting was attended by ACMS secretary RupeshGowala, former Speaker and Labour Minister PrithiviMajhi, former minister and Dibrugarh District Congress president EtuwaMunda and all the senior leaders of the ACMS.

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