Assam Finance Minister and BJP’s chief poll strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday warned tea estate owners to pay daily wages to their workers at the revised rate or face the music.
Addressing an election rally in eastern Assam’s Mahmora, Dr. Sarma said the BJP-led government revised the daily wages from ₹96 to ₹217 over seven years.
“Your daily wage was ₹96 before Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. We revised it to ₹217 but a few tea garden owners went to the High Court against the revision in connivance with the Congress,” he told a crowd largely comprising tea plantation workers.
“I am warning tea garden owners that they should straightaway pay the workers at a rate of ₹217. They will otherwise be made to pay ₹350 if they keep stalling the revised wage with support from the Congress,” Dr. Sarma said.
Reacting to the accusation, the Congress said the BJP had been under pressure ever since Rahul Gandhi promised the tea plantation workers ₹365 as daily wage if the Mahajot or grand alliance came to power. The Congress also said the government would bear part of the wage to ease the burden on tea estate owners.
“The BJP is compelled to react. They raised the wage by ₹50 under pressure but were not sincere enough to follow official procedures and it was stayed by the court. The party is now threatening the tea companies after Rahul Gandhi said the Congress will give them the promised wage within 6 hours of forming government in Assam,” Congress leader Bobbeeta Sharma said.
The BJP had in its 2016 vision document promised ₹351 as daily wage for tea plantation workers. The existing wage of ₹137 at that time was increased to ₹167 in 2015.
On February 20, less than a fortnight before the poll dates were announced, the Assam government raised the wage to ₹217 but the Indian Tea Association and 17 tea companies went to court and had it stayed as they had not been consulted.
Tea plantation workers, once loyal to the Congress, largely voted for the BJP in 2016. They are a potent electoral force in 45 of the State’s 126 Assembly constituencies.
Complaint to EC
The legal department of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee has written to the Election Commission complaining about the “misuse of government machinery and violation of Model Code of Conduct.”
The party highlighted a recent instruction by the State Department of Panchayat and Rural Development to complete all works on Prime Minister Awas Yojana houses before March 27, the date for the first phase of polling across 47 Assembly seats.
“This gives clear indication that it is politically motivated and voters are being enticed through such an order … The EC should take strict action on such actions of the government and ensure that such attempts to use government machinery do not happen,” the Congress said in a statement.
