Paresh Baruah

The ULFA (I) has asked Tata Tea, now Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL), to immediately relocate all its administrative offices to Assam and recruit only indigenous people in various positions in the company.

ULFA (I) has threatened the company that the failure to do so would mean that the company would not be allowed to do business in Assam.

No one associated with your company would be allowed to travel around Assam in your business interest, the proscribed outfit said in a statement on Thursday.

“We will not shy away to destroy your company by forcing the closure of your tea gardens either,” the outfit said.

“We believe that no one in your company will take this as an empty threat and ignore this notice.  We also believe that you will appreciate that Assam has the first right to getting recruited to your company and will pay heed to our notice and comply with it. This would be good for your company and Assam,” the statement issued by Rumel Asom, member, of the Publicity wing of ULFA (I) said.

The ULFA (I) said that it had been seen that the company was in the business of making a profit in Assam and to this end, it should devise its corporate planning.

“However, you have heavy responsibilities to the land and her people where you operate your business,” the statement said.

The outfit pointed out that in the head office of the company no indigenous person was recruited and that the liaison office was also from outside the state.

The ULFA (I) said that the staff recruited in the administrative office that APPL had in the state were contractual employees and that the administrative office was just an eyewash.

Stressing on the recruitment of indigenous people, the ULFA (I) said that it was an organization looking after the core interest of Assam and as such could not allow profiting from Assam without benefitting the land where it was operating.

A senior official of APPL said that the company was trying to establish the veracity of the notice following which they would sit in discussion with the government.

Smita Bhattacharyya is Northeast Now Correspondent in Jorhat. She can be reached at: [email protected]