Assam govt. announces compensation to woo protesting tea garden workers

Guwahati, May 30 (IANS): The Assam government on Sunday tried to woo the “unhappy” workers in Doloo tea garden near Silchar by announcing a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each to 1,263 families as a goodwill gesture. The decision was taken at a state cabinet meeting.

After the Assam government sought to develop a new greenfield airport in Silchar, protests erupted in the Lalbagh division of the Daloo tea garden area.

The government approached the owner of the tea garden to relinquish 1,500 acres of land to set up the new airport.

A pre-feasibility study was conducted by a team comprising officials of the Airports Authority of India and the state government and they found the Doloo tea garden as the most feasible site for the upcoming greenfield airport.

But on May 12, protests erupted in the Lalbagh division of Doloo tea estate when the district administration deployed hundreds of bulldozers clear the tea plantation from that area in order to acquire the land for the proposed greenfield airport.

Hundreds of tea garden workers rushed to the site, soaked in heavy rain, ignoring the restrictions imposed under Section 144 imposed in the area a day earlier.

The workers raised slogans saying they will not allow the construction of an airport.

However, due to the heavy deployment of security personnel, the workers could not enter the site of eviction. Faced with helplessness, some of the workers even bowed down to the feet of security personnel, pleading not to destroy the tea bushes.

However, the Cachar district administration continued the eviction and a good number of tea bushes were uprooted from the Daloo tea garden in the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, the tea garden workers continued their protest and sought the intervention of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the matter. The agitation has also started to spread in other tea garden areas as well.