GUWAHATI, April 9 - �In the present age of information and technology, media has to play a crucial role for social reformation apart from disseminating information. In an era when yellow journalism and concocted news is being served to people in different mass media, people look for credible source of news that informs, rather than misleading them.�
This observation was made by Bodo Sahitya Sabha president Taren Boro while speaking as the chief guest of the 62nd annual conference of the Assam Tribune Employees� Union (ATEU), held on the Tribune building premises here today.
Boro, while deliberating on the current issues concerning the media and the trade union movement, said that the curse of globalisation is affecting all segments of society. He lauded the role of The Assam Tribune and Dainik Asam in maintaining credibility and retaining the faith of their readers.
The 62nd annual conference of the ATEU for the year 2019-20 was presided over by outgoing ATEU president Santanava Hazarika. New executive committee members of the union were introduced at the conference. This year, Siba Prasad Deka has been elected president of the union, while Partha Pratim Hazarika and Jiten Kalita have been elected vice president and general secretary respectively.
Tankeswar Kakati and Gautam Kakati have been elected assistant general secretaries by the employees of the institution, whereas Anima Das is the organising secretary and Utpal Karmakar treasurer of the union.
The six ATEU executive members include Shyam Kumar Singha, Bhaskar Das, Hiranya Kumar Barman, Pankaj Borthakur, Babul Saloi and Jitumoni Goswami.
Sanjay Kumar Tanti, executive president of the Asam Sahitya Sabha�s sub-committee on the development of tea tribe and adivasi language, literature and culture, while speaking as an appointed speaker, threw light on the ground realities of tea tribe communities of Assam, which are generally overlooked during planning of policies.
�The people of tea tribe and adivasi communities lack the basic things like minimum wage and basic healthcare. There are approximately 22 lakh tea community people working in the tea gardens of Assam, but only nine lakh of them are permanent employees. Moreover, the total population of tea tribe people engaged in agriculture and other jobs, apart from tea gardens, would be around 1.35 crore. Ironically, our government policies and programmes mainly talk about the nine lakh permanent workers, which is a smaller section of the entire population,� he mentioned.
Tanti also spoke about the poor literacy rate among tea communities (37 per cent) and the need to focus on the tea garden people for preserving and promoting the Assamese language.
Earlier, Tankeswar Kakati explained the objectives of the meeting, ATEU�s chief election officer RD Goswami introduced the members of the new executive committee, senior journalist Bedabrata Misra recited a poem and singer Ghana Deka enthralled the gathering with his song.
ATEU�s resolutions were read out at the meeting by Hiranya Kumar Barman. The three resolutions included demand for a new wage board, appeal against communal polarisation and call for a joint movement of workers and employees and demand for provision of pension at a higher rate.
In his speech, ATEU president Santanava Hazarika said that like the provision of pension for journalists, the State government must also introduce pension for non-journalist staff of the media houses. �With growing concern about the security of journalists in the entire country, a specific legislation should be brought to ensure security of journalists,� he said. Hazarika also pointed out that commissioning of the Bogibeel Bridge has helped the readers of the North bank get their newspapers on time.
