Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia talking to media persons during the Budget Session of the Assam Legislative Assembly in Guwahati on Wednesday. – AT Photo

GUWAHATI, March 1 – Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Debabrata Saikia today slammed the statement made by Industries Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary on the floor of the State on the issue of the wages of the Assam Tea Corporation (ATC) as a misleading one.

Saikia alleged that the Industries Minister told the State Assembly today that the wages of the ATC workers are less due to the roles played by the Assam Cha Shramik Sangha (ACMS) and the Barak Chah Shramik Union. The minister demanded that the ACMS should be disbanded.

This statement of the Industries Minister is nothing but a threat to democratic organisations and the democratic rights of people. The right of the workers to form their unions is a universal right. The United Nations Organisation (UNO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) have recognised this right of the workers as a fundamental one. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been trying to curtail this right of the tea workers at the instance of the Sangha Parivar. The ATC is a government organisation and the Government can hike the wages of its workers at any moment if it wishes to do so. But the Government, instead of doing that, has been blaming workers’ organisations for the Government’s failure to effect a hike in the wages of the ATC workers, said Saikia.

Posted on Assam Tribune