Jorhat, May 25: The Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) has submitted a six-point charter of demands to the visiting parliamentary standing committee on labour, which includes opening of a "group hospital" for 25 to 30 tea gardens across Assam.
The ACMS, with its central office in the premier tea town of Dibrugarh in Upper Assam, is Intuc-affiliated and the oldest and largest tea workers' union in the state.
ACMS general secretary Dileshwar Tanti told The Telegraph today from Dibrugarh that the 31-member committee, led by Virendra Kumar, is on a visit to Upper Assam to know about the working and living conditions of tea workers.
Tanti said last evening the committee had a meeting with representatives of workers' unions and tea companies in Duliajan after visiting a few gardens in the district. Tanti, a former minister, said on behalf of the union he briefed the committee members about the workers' condition and submitted a memorandum.
He said the first point was about the urgent need to set up a "group hospital" among 25 to 30 gardens by the owners or companies and provide advanced and specialised treatment as district or sub-divisional hospitals were too far from the estates. He said gardens with their own hospitals were not well-equipped to handle critical and emergency cases.
Tanti said a provision of the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, and Assam Plantation Labour Rules, 1956, included the opening of a group hospital among several estates, but no such hospital has been set up, leading to loss of lives because of delay in providing advanced medical treatment.
"When I was the minister for labour and employment (1991-96), my department had taken initiative to set up four group hospitals by the tea companies in four different places and the process to search land for allotment was undertaken," he said.
"Unfortunately, the initiative was not carried forward by the successive AGP and Congress governments," Tanti said.
He said opening of ME and high schools in garden areas, extending maternity leave of tea workers from three to six months like state government employees, paying house rent to workers who have not been provided residential quarters, providing individual electricity meters by doing away with the system of cluster meters in labour quarters were other demands in the memorandum.
Another demand was granting pension to retired workers, who at present only get accumulated provident fund benefits. The ACMS wants the government to amend the labour act so that workers' legitimate demands could be granted.
The ACMS, headed by former Union minister Paban Singh Ghatowar, has 22 branches in the tea belt and garden units.
The union plans to organise its general council meeting next month in Lahowal (Dibrugarh), where office-bearers of all branches and garden unit leaders will take stock of the Assembly results and put forward ideas to chalk out plans to reconsolidate the Congress base in the tea belt.
