The Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government on Wednesday, August 10, after a meeting with the various tea associations of the state and the country and the workers’ union, took the decision to raise the daily wage of the state’s tea gardeners by 27 rupees.
Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, tweeting on the micro-blogging social media site Twitter said that “Happy to share that in a meeting with tea associations, it was decided to hike the workers’ wage by Rs 27, thus raising their daily wage to Rs 232 & Rs 210 in Brahmaputra Valley and Barak Valley respectively.” The chief minister also assured to raise Govt subsidy for orthodox tea from Rs 7 to Rs 10 per kg” The revision of wages, as per Sarma, will be effective from August 01.
The delegates present in the meeting were from the Indian Tea Association, the Tea Association of India, Bharatiya Chah Parishad, the Assam Tea Planters’ Association, and the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed that the tea workers of the state will also receive ration cards in their name and further tweeted that, “Besides, all garden workers will get ration cards and we urged the gardens to take Fair Price Shop licenses.”
This is the second instance of such an increase in the daily wage of tea workers after the Himanta Biswa Sarma government came into power. Earlier, in May last year, soon after Himanta Biswa Sharma was crowned as the Chief Minister of Assam, the salary of the tea workers was raised by 38 rupees by the Assam government.
Sarma speaking to the media said that the welfare of the state’s tea gardeners has always been a top priority for his government.
Notably, the issue of tea garden workers’ was a major poll issue in the last Assam State Assembly Election, 2021, and the opposition congress as part of its many claims if voted to power promised to pay a wage of Rs 365 a day to the state’s tea workers.
