Opposing the cashless payment system, the tea garden labourers in Assam on Thursday rocked the streets in different parts of the State demanding immediate rollback of the cash payment system in tea gardens to pay the wages of the labourers and continuation of subsidized ration to them.
Thousands of tea garden labourers in Dibrugarh, Sivsagar, Tinsukia, Charaideo, Golaghat and Sonitopur districts under the banner of Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangh (ACMS) took to the streets today morning and blocked highways for sometimes to press the government to fulfill their demands.
Union labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya had recently announced here that the Centre is planning to directly transfer the wages of the accounts of tea garden labourers, including the amount they receive in cash and in kinds.
As per the Plantation labour Act of 1951, the worker’s wages is divided into cash and kind comprising ration, healthcare and education services. While in Assam a plantation worker’s daily wage is Rs 137, he or she is also entitled to a monthly quota of 35 kg or rice and wheat at a subsidised rate of 54 paise per kg. “We are not going to accept this. The subsidized ration must continue as it is a part of our wages. The government has been making a conspiracy to stop this subsidy which we have been receiving since ages,” said Ramesh Mura, a worker of Dikarai tea estate in Sonitpur District who also took part in the protest.