DIBRUGARH, July 20 - The Chah Shramik Mukti Sangram Sammittee (CSMSS) has said that the district administration and tea estate owners must arrange the required documents for inclusion of all the members of the tea garden working communities into the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The CSMSS leaders said that the members the tea garden working communities despite being Indians had no documents to prove themselves as Indian citizens. �It is a tragedy that the tea estate owners in the State deliberately kept the people ignorant since ages. The plantation owners also deprived the tea garden working communities of their rights to land and education due to which majority have no documents,� Deepak Karmakar, president, CSMSS, Dibrugarh district stated.
Karmakar led a massive demonstration of the tea garden workers in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner here recently to press for unconditional inclusion of their names in the NRC. The tea garden workers said that they came to Assam more then 160 years ago from central parts of India and there should be no doubt about their nationality.
The Chah Shramik Mukti Sangram Sammittee staged demonstration for about two hours on July 13 before submitting a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. The Mancotta road was blocked during the demonstration, leading to traffic snarls at various intersections in and around Chowkidinghee. Among others, the Sammittee also demanded implementation of the announced daily wage of tea garden workers and further increase in the daily wage of the workers to Rs 400 with Sunday holiday inclusive, allotment of lands, electrification and timely release of PF and Gratuity to the retired employees.
