Assam: Skill Development Centre for tea tribes at Kaliabor lies defunct since 2013, students’ body demands revival

A Skill Development Centre established by the Tea Tribes Welfare Department at Chikni in Kaliabor in 2013 has remained non-functional for over a decade, raising serious questions over the implementation and monitoring of welfare schemes meant for tea tribe youth.

Despite being launched with the objective of enhancing employable skills among tea tribe youth, the centre has remained locked since the year of its inauguration. Over time, the facility has deteriorated into an abandoned structure, symbolising administrative neglect and unfulfilled promises.

Officially, the centre was handed over for operation to a Guwahati-based NGO, H.P. Institute of Insurance, soon after its launch. Training activities reportedly began under the NGO’s management; however, operations came to a complete halt within four to five months, after which the centre was shut down indefinitely.

The infrastructure, whose foundation stone was laid in 2009 by then Member of Parliament Dip Gogoi and former minister Prithvi Majhi, is now in a dilapidated state. Several assets, including furniture, two large generators, refrigerators, and other equipment, have either been damaged or allegedly looted. Broken doors and windows, along with unchecked growth of bushes and wild vegetation, dominate the premises.

The prolonged abandonment of the centre has drawn sharp criticism, with observers terming it a glaring example of the ineffective functioning of the Tea Tribes Welfare Department. The failure to revive the facility has deprived generations of tea tribe youth of skill development opportunities that were promised under the scheme.

Meanwhile, the Tea Tribes Students’ Association has demanded immediate intervention from the authorities, urging the government to revive and operationalise the centre at the earliest to ensure meaningful skill training and employment prospects for tea tribe youth.