The Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association on Friday appealed to the doctors, who had left the tea gardens in the wake of killing of Teok Tea Estate physician Deben Dutta, to return to work.
Dutta succumbed to his injuries allegedly inflicted by garden workers following the death of one of their colleagues who was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Teok Tea Estate.
About seven doctors from different gardens of Assam had resigned following the lynching of Dutta, citing insecurity and fear as the reasons for quitting.
Rajen Kumar and Paban Bedia, president and general secretary respectively of ATTSA in a press meet here on Friday assured that they would help create an atmosphere of peace in the gardens.
Kumar said that they would ensure security of the doctors and they should not feel insecure because of this one incident.
The ATTSA general secretary said that awareness meetings asking people not be mislead by vested interests and indulge in violence have already started
Bedia also pointed out the Government should take note of the fact that attacks on doctors was not happening only in tea estates in recent times, but also in places outside the gardens.
The students ‘ body said that it was wrong to single out the tea community for condemnation on social media because of this.
“The lynching of Deben Dutta is crime like any other and the guilty should be punished as per law. The community should not be singled out for condemnation and shaming as is being done on social media,” Bedia said.
The students’ body further said that they had always worked hand in hand with the All Assam Students’ Union and did not believe that the tea community as a whole was bad.
“There are anti social elements in each community,” they said.
The ATTSA leadership reiterated that they did not support the brutal assault of Dutta, and welcomed the trial of those arrested in the case by a fast track court as announced by the government.
They further said that the government should oblige the victim’s family and look into their needs and demands.
The organisation further asked the administration to work for lifting of the lockout which had entered the sixth day on Friday.