GUWAHATI: In the line of Mamata Banerjee government West Bengal, the Assam government on Friday night decided to hike the minimum wage of tea garden workers by Rs 18 with effect from October 1.
This was decided in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma with the tea planters organisations for the fixation of tea labourer wages at CM’s conference Hall of Janata Bhawan on Friday night.
According to the new rate the minimum wage for a tes labourrr will be Rs 250 in Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 228 in Barak Valley.
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However, the new wage will be finalised only after the labourer organisations, including Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) and the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU).
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Indian Tea Association (ITA), Assam Tea Planters Association (ATPA), Assam Branch Indian Tea Association (ABITA), Tea Association of India (TAI), North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) and Bharatiya Chah Parishad (BCP).
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Mamata Banerjee government announced an interim hike of Rs 18 in the wages of tea garden workers whose pay would go up to Rs 250.
In the last hike, which effected from August 1, 2022, tea garden workers in Brahmaputra Valley got Rs 232 a day, up from Rs 205 a day. Garden workers from Barak Valley saw their daily wage hiked to Rs 210 from Rs 183 a day.
The move is expected to benefit over 10 lakh workers across 800 gardens of the state, which produce about 55 per cent of the country’s tea.
The supply of food grains to the workers by the management would continue as usual.
A daily wage hike has remained a key demand of the tea community in Assam, which plays a decisive role in around 40 of the 126 Assembly constituencies.
The demand had become a key poll plank of the Congress-led alliance in the Assembly polls held in March-April, 2021.