Assam tea workers’ wages to be revised by Feb 20, says Himanta

GUWAHATI: The Assam government today said the tea workers’ wages would be revised latest by February 20.

Tabling the state interim budget 2021, Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the process for revision of tea workers’ wages has been initiated. “We have decided to revise the wages of tea garden workers by February 20,” he told the state assembly today.

The tea workers have been demanding wage of Rs 351 per day. The tea workers are currently paid Rs 167 per day wage in Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 145 per day in Barak Valley.

The minister also elaborated on various schemes implemented in the tea gardens of Assam over the past year.

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The vote on account budget from April-July 2021 comes ahead of the state assembly polls tentatively in April.

Presenting the last budget of the incumbent BJP-led coalition government, Sarma also said the state government has provided free rice to 58 lakh needy families. “If you assume five members in a family, the number of beneficiaries stands at about nearly 2.5 crore of the 3 crore population of Assam,” he said.

Announcing that the state government spent a total of Rs 13,501 crore in infrastructure development over the past year, he said the incumbent government has constructed of a total of 870 bridges and 1000 wooden bridges have been turned into concrete bridges.

Highlighting the recently launched Asom Mala project, the minister said 890 km of road will be constructed in the state.

He also said the government was planning to inaugurate several cancer hospitals in different parts of the state by September 2021. “We will get the hospitals inaugurated by the prime minister with the press of a single button,” he added.