DIBRUGARH, July 30 - ABC Tea Workers Welfare Service, a non-profit service consortium of a segment of the tea industry, which is controlled from Kolkata, has come under the scanner of several plantation-based organizations for alleged supply of adulterated rations to the workers of certain tea estates in the State.
Assam Tea Tribes Students� Association (ATTSA) has demanded that ABC Tea Workers Welfare Service be blacklisted, alleging that the ration distribution agency has been supplying substandard rations to the workers in the tea estates since the past several years.
Speaking at the backdrop of a demonstration here, Ranjit Thakur, central executive committee member of ATTSA said that the ration supplied to the workers is often found mixed with sand and chippings. �The distributed ration also emanates foul smell and is beyond human consumption. The authorities of ABC Tea Workers Welfare Service are supervising the supply of such cheap quality rations to the tea garden workers of the State here from Kolkata. This is not at all acceptable. The ration distribution agency must be blacklisted in the State. The government must also institute CBI enquiry against the ABC Tea Workers Welfare Service for its corrupt practices. We want that rations for the tea garden workers be arranged from the open market and not from Kolkata,� the ATTSA leader demanded.
The district unit of ATTSA today staged a demonstration in front of the branch office of ABC Tea Workers Welfare Service here. The student body carried posters and banners as they demonstrated their anger against the ration distribution agency with sloganeering.
Lazar Nanda, also a member of ATTSA central executive committee said that whenever the issue of inferior quality is raised, the agency applies its shrewdness and supplies better quality in the subsequent rounds for certain period but goes back to the same old trick. We are, therefore, demanding that the government dismiss this distribution agency from operating in the State for good, he said.
Protesting ATTSA members later submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Deputy Commissioner here. It is pertinent to mention here that there are several other ration distribution agencies operating in the State. These agencies handle the ration distribution for the workers in the tea gardens.
