Asom: Daily wage rate of tea garden workers raised

Guwahati, May 13: The tea industry has raised the daily wage rate of the tea workers employed in tea estates of Brahmaputra valley in Assam as per the last bi-partite agreement with Asom Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), the apex tea trade union body in the state.

According to a tea industry source, the bi-partite agreement recommended for phase-wise increase in tea wages till the year 2009.

The tea workers in Bramaputra Valley will now receive daily wages at the revised rate Rs 54.80.

The pre-revision rate was Rs 51 per day.

However, wage revision is yet to be effected for tea workers from Cachar areas in Southern Assam.

The industry source, however, said it was just a matter of some time before the wage revision was effected for Cachar tea workers too.

Meanwhile, the process for distribution of tea workers weekly rations through the Public Distribution System (PDS) was at the final stage and is likely to be effected from June this year.

As per the new system the tea estates will have to lift food items through the PDS instead of doing it directly from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns.

The new system is being put in place replacing the earlier one as per the directive of the Union MInistry for Food and CIvil Supplies.

UNI