JORHAT, Sept 6 - The Assam Tea Tribes Students� Association (ATTSA) has appealed to the doctors, who have resigned from tea estate hospitals and left in the wake of the lynching incident at Teok TE on August 31, to return to the gardens.
It may be mentioned here that nearly seven doctors who were working in tea estates across the State, quit their jobs citing fear and a sense of insecurity gripping them in the aftermath of the brutal killing of Dr Deben Dutta inside the garden hospital.
Addressing mediapersons at the Jorhat Press Club today, ATTSA general secretary Paban Bedia and president Rajen Kumar, jointly appealed to the doctors who had left their jobs in tea gardens in the past few days following the killing of Dr Deben Dutta, to come back. Bedia also urged the doctors who were presently working not to think of quitting their jobs and move out.
He said that the students� body would like to assure that their organisation having presence in the gardens across the State, will be contributing in creating a favourable atmosphere to enable the doctors and supporting staff to provide medical care to the garden workers.
Bedia further urged the Government to take appropriate measures to get the Plantation Labour Act, 1951 properly and fully implemented by the management of the gardens so that the workers were not deprived from basic amenities.
Bedia stated that PLA should be amended by the Government, a long-standing demand of ATTSA, to provide benefits of all government welfare schemes to the tea workers so that they do not remain educationally and socially backward and believe in superstitions.
Welcoming the announcement of the Government to set up a fast-track court to conduct the trial, ATTSA president Rajen Kumar said that guilty should be given stern punishment. He said that the investigation in both the inquires � police and by a top State Government official � should be transparent and correct.
Replying to a query, Kumar said Manoj Majhi, who was among those arrested in the case, was a former ATTSA office-bearer of the Teok unit, and was not an active member of the association now. He said if Majhi was found to be involved in the incident, he should get appropriate punishment.
The ATTSA president urged the Government to take up with the management of Teok TE for lifting of the lockout which entered the sixth day today.
Kumar also expressed serious concern over large-scale abuses hurled on the tea tribes in the social media in the aftermath of the Teok TE incident and said that people should not make the entire tea worker community responsible for an incident which was highly condemnable.
He said an ATTSA delegation will visit the residence of the slain doctor Deben Dutta at Jogduwar and seek forgiveness for the incident and offer their condolences to the bereaved family.
