Guwahati, Jan 29 (PTI): The Congress government in Assam, often criticised by the Opposition for eyeing the dominant tea garden labour community as a vote bank, has outlined measures for their welfare ahead of the State Assembly election slated for later this year.
"Our government has taken up many welfare programmes for the overall development of the tea community in the last nine years because we know it is impossible to think of a developed Assam without ameliorating their plight," Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who will seek to be re-elected for a third consecutive term this time, said in a statement.
The government, he said, has allocated Rs 110 crore in the past nine years and plans to sanction Rs 20 crore this year for the welfare of the tea community while the previous Asom Gana Parishad regime had spent only Rs 10 crore.
