GUWAHATI, Sept 13 � In a significant development, the Assam Tea Tribe Students� Association (ATTSA) has made an appeal to the district authorities of Karbi Anglong to provide adequate security to the workers of Bhagawati TE so that the TE can resume its plucking activities during the rest of the season.
A section of the militants belonging to the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF) has allegedly compelled the owner of the TE to close down his garden on September 2 by demanding a heavy ransom amount.
Informing this, Bidyananda Barkakoty, chairman of the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA), hailed this step of the ATTSA as a welcome development. It has also informed that the ATTSA has assured all sorts of help in reopening the TE. The TE has its of affiliation to NETA.
Tea is such a crop which needs to be plucked in every seven or eight days, said the NETA chairman.
Since the TEs affected by the militants� extortion and abduction bids are concentrated under the Borpathar Police Station area, it is expected that posting a BSF camp at Santipur under the same police station would help in bringing the situation under control to a great extent, he said.
Meanwhile, the NETA has asked the police authorities to supply the contact numbers of the patrol parties so that vital time is not wasted in tackling the emergency situations. However, it maintains that the patrol party and a BSF camp are the two different things with marked qualitative differences, Barkakoty said.
In a press release, the NETA has alleged that on the afternoon of August 31 last, an employee of Bhagawati Tea Estate was abducted from the tea garden at gun-point in broad daylight by the militants. Then they forced the owner to close down the TE on September 2.
On September 6, at about 7.30 pm, the owner of Dhanseri Tea Estate Angshuman Das, was tried to be abducted by a group of militants and when he tried to flee from the scene, he was shot at with one bullet hitting him in his thigh.
In another grave incident on September 11, some armed militants entered the Tipujan Division of Nahorjan Tea Estate in Bokakhat subdivision of Golaghat district, fired in the air and snatched away a substantial amount of money ready for disbursement to the workers as weekly wages. It is learnt that the militants came from across the Karbi Anglong border and went back the same way. The Tipujan Division is at about 2 kms distance from the Karbi Anglong border.
The association has urged the State Government to launch a vigorous drive against the militants of Karbi Anglong, besides rescuing the abducted employee of the Bhagawati TE, and to provide special security forces to re-open the TE. It also said that it would soon request the Government of Assam to provide adequate security in the gardens and also provide personal security guards to the owners and senior executives in particular.
