Assam govt increases daily wage of tea workers to Rs 318 ahead of assembly polls

With state elections round thecorner, the Assam cabinet on Saturday approved a proposal toincrease the daily wage of tea garden workers in the state toRs 318, including Rs 101 for ration.

Tea estate labourers in the state will get a dailywage of Rs 217, a hike from Rs 167, and also receive Rs 101for ration, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra MohanPatowary told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

The wage revision of tea garden workers has become apolitical issue in the state with the opposition Congressaccusing the BJP-led government of failing to increase dailyincome of the plantation workers.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had promised to increasetheir daily wage to Rs 365 if voted to power.

Assam has over 10 lakh tea labourers in the organisedsector, working in around 800 estates, and the northeasternstate contributes about 52 per cent of the country's annualproduction.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hadannounced in the budget that the Centre will provide Rs 1,000crore for the welfare of tea workers especially women andtheir children in West Bengal and Assam.

The cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal, also gave its nod to a proposal of constituting aone-member committee for fixing an equal wage of small teagarden workers.

The labour department's principal secretary J B Ekkawill be the only member of the panel.

The cabinet also approved the purchase of 8,000wheelchairs for uses in the forthcoming assembly elections andother purposes thereafter.

It also cleared the proposal to create BodolandAdministrative Staff College and a new department for thewelfare of Bodoland, Patowary said.

Rules made for service condition and eligibility ofchairman, member secretary and members of Assam PollutionControl Board were also approved by the cabinet, he said.

The government also decided to regularise the serviceof 101 vocational teachers in 637 schools.

The amendment to the Guwahati Master Plan 2025 wasalso cleared, the minister said.

The cabinet gave a green signal for allotments of landto Srimanta Sankaradeva University at Nagaon, World RenewalSpiritual Trust at Kamrup and a civil society organisation atGuwahati.

The government also decided to give an extension of upto 60 years to contractual employees who have been in servicefor at least 10 years in the Panchayat and Rural department,and the minister concerned was asked to submit a report.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)