Members of the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) and workers on Thursday staged a protest against the management of the Madarkhat tea estate here over non-payment of wages.
Sanjay Tanti, an estate worker, said, “We have been not getting wages for two months. We don’t know what we will do. We have urged the management to clear our wages and provident fund but to no avail.” “We are not getting ration for four months. We are selling utensils to meet family expenses. We appeal to the management to understand our problems and sort out the wage issue as soon as possible,” said Kajal Tasa, another worker.
ATTSA publicity secretary Lakhindra Kurmi said, “On Wednesday, we held a meeting with the management seeking release of the workers’ wages. However, the management said they could not release the wages because of the garden’s poor financial condition.”
Kurmi alleged the tea estate staff are not getting salary for eight months. “The gardens has 500 permanent workers and their condition was
pathetic because of non-payment of wages. Despite several pleas to the district administration, it is not taking any initiative to solve the issue,” he said. “We urged the state government and the district administration to intervene in the matter. We want the matter to be sorted out within a week or we might be forced to launch an intense agitation,” an ATTSA member said.