Hundreds of workers of the Lepetakata Tea Estate (Bolai Division) under the banner of the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) on Monday staged a protest over the garden management’s alleged move to uproot 37 hectares of tea bushes for construction of an industrial unit. Spearheading the protest, ACMS Dibrugarh district general secretary Nabin Keot said that the garden management has already begun uprooting tea garden bushes for construction of an industrial unit inside the tea garden. Keot further alleged that the tea garden management kept the workers in the dark by misleading them that the tea bushes were being uprooted for replantation of new tea bushes whereas the real intention was to set up an industrial unit in the area.
“We have come to know that the management of Lepetakata Tea Estate (Bolai Division) is going to clear up 37 hectares of tea bushes in order to set up an industrial unit. Already the process has started. We strongly oppose the decision as the livelihood of hundreds of garden workers will be at stake. Earlier also 25 hectares of land of Lepetakata Tea Estate were evicted for the construction of the Brahmaputa Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL) plant. At that time also the garden workers who lost their jobs were promised some kind of employment in the BCPL plant but that did not materialised,” Keot said.
He added, “The tea industry is being systematically destroyed by such senseless acts by the tea garden management. We have seen numerous cases of tea garden lands being sold for industrial and commercial purposes. This has to stop. We can’t allow them to destroy the tea gardens as thousands of workers are dependent on them for their livelihood.”
