JORHAT, June 18 � Demanding an immediate deposit of over Rs 80 crore to the employees provident fund (EPF) of the tea garden workers of Assam Tea Corporation (ATC) by the State government, hundreds of tea garden workers and district office bearers of the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) here participated in a sit-in demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner�s office today and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister to fulfil various other demands.
�Government is yet to deposit over Rs 80 crore to the provident fund of the workers of ATC gardens. Besides, another amount of Rs 20 crore has not been released for the retirement benefits of the workers for years. We demand Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to take up immediate steps for the deposit and release of the amounts for the financial security of the workers,�said Nilesh Gond, district secretary of the ACMS.
The protesters said that government has neither taken effective measures to provide proper health-care facilities nor initiated any action for school education in their 14 gardens, which deprived the workers and their children of modern-day health services and education facilities.
