Dharna supporting tea garden workers in Margherita

On Tuesday, the Assam Tea Tribes Student Association (ATTSA) and Assam Tea tribes Women Association (ATTWA) Margherita Branch Committee jointly staged a dharna  for two hours in front of the General Manager's office about various burning issues with Margherita Tea Estate Workers.

Mukundor Gowala, President in Charge, and Nuwel Patra, General Secretary of ATTSA Margherita Branch Committee, led a Dharna protest for two hours. More than 2000 Tea Garden workers from Margherita Tea Estate were present and gave slogans such as ATTSA long live, Tea workers long live, BJP government Murdabad, Narendra Modi Murdabad and Himanta Biswa Sarma Murdabad.

Pranjal Baraik, Central Executive Member of ATTSA Umesh Jal, Assistant Secretary of ATTSA Tinsukia District Committee, said that the BJP led government had failed to keep its promise that after forming a BJP Government in Assam they would pay Rs 351 minimum wage to all tea garden workers. They added that the Labour welfare officers were only for name sake as they were never seen doing any welfare activities for tea garden workers. These representatives added that since Independence Tea Garden workers in Assam are treated as Slaves and no government prior to this had ever done a single development work in the tea gardens of Assam. Congress, AGP and other political parties just remember the tea garden workers during their election campaigns as their votes are considered a vote bank.

Pranjal Baraik also criticized the BJP government for forcefully evicting Dolu tea estate and for the incident in the upcoming election, BJP led Assam government shall face protest of Assam tea tribes students association(ATTSA) all over Assam. ATTSA Margherita branch committee handed memorandum consisting of 12 charter demands to the General Manager of Margherita tea estate and if they fail to fulfill then a strong agitational program will be taken by ATTSA. If untoward incident occurs then Margherita tea estate management, Marc administration (civil) and BJP led Assam government shall be fully responsible for it, said Pranjal Baraik.