Guwahati, Feb. 12: Dispur today faced the ire of the tea tribes with the leaders of the community setting a two-month deadline for the Tarun Gogoi government to resolve their problems.

At a meeting convened by the Assam Tea Tribes Students? Association (ATTSA), the participants, including leaders of all important political parties, threatened to launch a party of their own if their elected representatives failed to serve the interest of the community.

The tea community set the deadline a day after Rupak Gogoi, a tea garden owner and son of former Congress minister Jibakanta Gogoi, was killed by his workers over a wage dispute.

ATTSA president Durga Bhumij said, ?The political parties have failed to serve the interests of the tea community. So we are not ruling out the possibility of forming a separate political organisation in the future.?

The participants, including labour minister Rameshwar Dhanowar, decided to form a platform for the tea tribes with representatives of all organisations associated with the community like the ATTSA, the All Adivasi Students? Association of Assam and the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha. The platform will be formed within a month and will decide the community?s future course of action.

?We will start a mass movement against the government if our problems are not resolved within two months. The Congress will not be allowed to take us for granted. All these years, we have been a strong vote-base of the party, but it has not given our problems adequate attention,? Bhumij said.

The leaders claimed that the government had failed to serve the community, particularly in addressing the unemployment problem and in providing basic amenities.

The leaders took exception to minister of state for home Rockybul Hussain?s recent remark that most of the youths of the community did not meet the requisite physical standard for recruitment in the police department and demanded that he apologise immediately.

The meeting discussed non-payment of wages to garden workers, listing the community as Scheduled Tribes and the killing of Gogoi.