Guwahati: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday directed the directorate of welfare of tea tribes to re-activate and strengthen the 19 skill development centres in tea garden areas of the state to boost employment opportunities.
Chairing a meeting at his office in Janata Bhawan to review schemes for the welfare of the tea tribe communities, Sonowal said, "Enabling the skill centres to live up to their mandate will not only hone income generating faculty of the youths, but also increase their employability."
The review meeting comes within days of Dispur issuing a notification on July 3 asking the tea industry to pay a minimum amount of interim relief of Rs 30 per day with retrospective effect from March till the finalisation of the revised minimum wages. At present, the industry is paying Rs 137 as daily wages. The industry has expressed its inability to do so because of depressed market conditions.
At Tuesday's meeting, Sonowal also asked power minister Topon Kumar Gogoi to ensure electrification of all households in tea garden areas on priority basis under the Centre's Saubhagya scheme while nudging the Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd (APDCL) to install individual meters in each household in garden areas.
He also asked tea tribe welfare minister Pallab Lochan Das to develop a foolproof method to see that no names are left out while transferring benefits under Chah Bagicha Dhan Puraskar Mela.
Urging MLAs belonging to tea tribe-dominated areas to see that all rightful beneficiaries get financial benefits, he asked the tea tribe welfare department to meet target for schemes such as providing smart phone to line sardars in tea gardens, pre-matric scholarship, post-matric scholarship, construction of patient guesthouse for tea tribes at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.
Sonowal also took stock of the implementation of daily wage hike of tea garden workers and bring it on a par with wages in Barak and Brahmaputra valleys.
Schemes such as Prime Minister Surakshya Bima Yojana and Prime Minister Jiban Jyoti Bima Yojana, under which the tea labourers having bank accounts will get life insurance and the annual premium of Rs 342 per scheme per beneficiary will be paid by the state government have also been discussed.
Sonowal asked principal secretary finance to take schemes to their logical conclusion.
MPs Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Rameswar Teli, MLAs Sanjay Kisan and Terosh Gowala, principal secretary to chief minister Sanjay Lohiya, principal secretary to finance minister Samir Sinha, representatives from tea communities, senior officers of the Directorate for Welfare of Tea and Ex-tea Garden Tribes were present during the review meeting.
