Senior Congress leader Mohammed Akbar has charged that the State Government is not giving the tendu patta pluckers of the State their due rights.
He has also raised questions on State Government celebrating the ‘Tendu patta Bonus Tihar’ and has alleged that the Government was wrongly using the term ‘Bonus’.
Akbar in a statement said “Bonus is a term which is an amount paid in excess to the remuneration which one gets at hand and the Government had made income from the tendu leaves procurement and had not given due right to the pluckers”.
The Congress leader while citing the figures of income from the tendu leaves procurement during year 2016 said that in the entire state, procurement of 13.61 lakhs of standard bags took place. Before collection the forest produce was sold through advance tender system in Rs 4693 per standard bag and total value was at Rs 639 crore, he said.
While not giving due rights to 15 lakh tribals and forest dwellers the government had distributed them Rs 204.21 crore at the rate of Rs 1500 per standard bag, he said.
Thus the Government withheld the payment of Rs 434.68 crore deposited in banks, Akbar said.
Now the government is distributing only Rs 275 crore from the balance amount and is terming it as a Bonus festival, he said.