Assam: A good start of the new year for tea planters as 6.58 lakh labourers to get Rs 182 crore

Guwahati, January 3, 2018: After 13 months since Modi announced demonetisation, the BJP-led government in Assam on Tuesday formally launched an award scheme through which it would put Rs 2,500 in bank accounts of over 6.58 lakh tea plantation labourers who had opened bank accounts for the first time in November 2016.

The 'Chah Bagichar Dhan Puraskar' scheme was launched in Tinsukia, a major tea-producing district in upper Assam on Tuesday, with Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal ceremonially distributing cheques worth Rs 2,500 each to a group of such tea plantation labourers.

"It is very encouraging that lakhs of tea plantation labourers who had received their wages in cash for three to four generations, have so wonderfully adapted themselves and started operating bank accounts after their wages were transferred to banks following the demonetisation process in November 2016," Sonowal said.

While over 6.58 lakh tea plantation labourers who opened bank accounts after November 2016 would receive Rs 2,500 each, the Assam government would deposit another Rs 2,500 in the accounts of those who have maintained it for six months continuously, Sonowal announced. The entire exercise would cost the state government about Rs 182 crore, he said.

"The tea garden community constitutes an important segment of the demography of Assam and they have been contributing selflessly to the promotion of our state's economy. Our government is working to bring them under the ambit of a broad spectrum of financial inclusion," Sonowal said.

Sonowal also hugely acknowledged the problems faced by the community since ages.

"It has been one of the commitments of our government to solve all the problems faced by the people belonging to tea community. If they lag behind, the overall development of the state would also suffer. Our government will take all possible steps for ameliorating their condition and ensuring their development," he said.

Feature image courtesy: International Institute of Social History

TNT News with inputs from The Indian Express