Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asked tea garden owners to adhere to government notification. (File)
Guwahati:
Two days before the first phase of Assembly elections in Assam, state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the government will transfer Rs 1,000 every month in the bank accounts of tea workers.
“We were giving Rs 3,000 to the accounts of the tea workers annually, but, we will annually now provide Rs 12,000, that is Rs 1,000 monthly to those accounts,” Mr Sarma said while addressing a rally in Bokakhat on Thursday.
Mr Sarma’s statement comes days after the Gauhati High Court said that tea garden owners in Assam will have the “liberty” to decide if they want to follow the state government’s order on raising wages for workers, days after saying no “coercive action” can be taken against them for not following it.
Following a petition filed by the Tea Authority of India (TAI) and 17 other tea owners, the court had declared as illegal the state government’s notification to the tea owners to hike the workers’ minimum wage from Rs 167 to Rs 217 per day by providing an interim amount of Rs 50.
The TAI, later, in a meeting decided to provide a hike of Rs 26 per day.
Mr Sarma, however, has asked the tea garden owners to adhere to the government notification and pay the revised wages of Rs 217. “The tea owners must have to pay Rs 350 later if they don’t pay Rs 217 now,” the BJP leader added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have been attempting to connect with the tea community which constitutes at least 27 per cent of the state’s population spread over around 800 tea gardens. The tea workers are a poll-deciding factor in at least 40 out of 126 assembly constituencies.
The BJP, ahead of the 2016 elections, managed to make certain inroads by announcing various schemes dedicated to the community plagued by economic and social backwardness, poor health conditions and low literacy rates.
Unhappy with their Rs 137 daily wage, the tea workers got their first substantial hike in 2017 when as an interim measure, the state government had raised their minimum wages to Rs 167 per day following the recommendation of an advisory committee. The committee, however, had suggested a wage of Rs 351 per day.
The Congress, sticking to the recommendation’s ballpark during the election campaign, has guaranteed that they will ensure Rs 365 minimum wage per day to the tea workers if they are voted to power.
Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, had pointed out that the tea workers’ salaries are the lowest in Assam, while it is around Rs 300 per day in other tea producing states such as Kerala and West Bengal.
The high-pitched campaign for the first phase of poll in Assam in 47 assembly constituencies scheduled for March 27 came to an end on Thursday evening. The poll on Saturday will decide the fate of 264 candidates.