Eyeing the next year’s Assembly polls, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is trying hard to reach out to the about 12 lakh tea garden workers in the State, an important vote-bank for the Congress.
The Assam Chief Minister on Saturday announced the State-owned tea gardens would give 20 per cent bonus to tea workers during the Durga puja festival, and asked all private gardens to follow suit.
On Friday, the Congress Government in Assam had opened 25 Nutrition shops 25 different tea gardens, expressing its commitment towards betterment of the tea garden communities, a traditional vote-bank of the party.
There are over 850 large and medium tea gardens in Assam with a strong 12 lakh tea garden workers. While the State-owned Assam Tea Corporation limited (ATCl) has only 15 gardens with close to 15,000 labourers, the rest are all private sector gardens. The tea garden workers are also deciding factors in at least 25 of the total 126 legislative Assembly constituencies in Assam.
“The tea gardens who have not decided to give 20 per cent bonus to the labourers should make their stand clear. We have decided to give 20 per cent bonus to ATCl gardens. When the loss making ATCl gardens can pay 20 per cent bonus, other tea companies should also replicate the same for the benefits of the tea workers,” Gogoi said on Saturday, adding “It is our duty to see that the tea workers’ interests are protected and they get their due in time.”
Assam Agriculture Minister Rockybul Hussain had on Friday inaugurated 25 Nutrition shops in different tea gardens of the State.
Christened as ‘Bagan Bazars’ (Garden markets), the Nutrition shops are expected to help the tea garden workers with nutritional food items, grocery items, green leafy vegetables, fruits and sanitary items etc. along with all necessary infrastructures like racks, refrigerator, weighing machine etc at reasonable rates.
Hussain said that the basic objective is to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the garden areas. While Assam has the IMR rate of 54, the state also has a higher MMR of 328 across the state.
It may be mentioned here that the Chief Minister had earlier announced that it would spend an amount of Rs. 861 crores for the benefit of people from poor economic background by distributing free threads, quilts and many other items under the existing schemes.