Jorhat, Dec. 5: Labourers of at least two gardens owned by the Assam Tea Corporation Limited (ATCL) have carried out voluntary work ( shramdaan) on Sundays to help revive the corporation, which has been running through a bad patch for the past several years.

This is probably the first time that labourers of Assam tea gardens, who are allegedly paid very low wages, have offerred shramdaan. The state has more than 800 big tea gardens and produces over 50 per cent of the country's 600 million kg tea annually.

"I appreciate the gesture of the labour force of Sycotta and Messamara tea estates who worked for free on Sundays. I will need such support from the workforce to revive the tea gardens," the newly appointed ATCL managing director, Depur Haraprasad, told The Telegraph today.

Haraprasad, who also holds the post of additional principal chief conservator of forests (lower Assam zone) took charge of the corporation in August.

He said it was a big morale booster for the workforce after the management started a plantation drive in the tea gardens. "The labourers are seeing a ray of hope after renewed activities in the gardens - new tractors, fencing, tea saplings, et al. They are now hopeful that the good old days will be back again," Haraprasad said.

Sailesh Tanti, a worker at Sycotta, said the rejuvenation in the tea estate would ensure that the labourers receive their weekly salary on time. "We have seen bad days when we did not receive our salary for months. We will not let that happen again. We will give our best to revive the estate. The renewed activities have cheered the mood of the labourers," he said.

Rajat Dutta, manager of Cinnamara tea estate, another garden owned by ATCL, said the workers have also decided to work for free tomorrow.

"Things are happening for good," Tapan Kharghara, manager of ATCL's Upper Assam head-office here, said.

Established in 1972, the ATCL is a wholly owned Assam government public sector undertaking that did brisk business in its heydays. However, mismanagement and lack of proper initiatives over the years have pushed the company to the brink of closure. Work in all the 15 gardens owned by the company came to a standstill between 2002 and 2004, forcing the workers to look for other jobs in urban settlements. The government did try to revive the company in 2005 by providing funds but that was not enough, going by the huge liabilities, which stood at Rs 144 crore in 2002.

ATCL sources said the turnover of the company was Rs 14 crore in 2005, and had increased to Rs 36 crore in 2009 and reached Rs 48 crore in 2012. The plantation area of all gardens under ATCL is 7,000 hectares with over 15,000 workers.

The company, under Haraprasad, has launched the re-plantation drive and set a target of completing the exercise on 500 hectares by June next year. The state government released Rs 9 crore a few months back to carry out development work in the company-owned gardens. Another Rs 7 crore was released a couple of years ago.

Haraprasad said the company has already purchased 29 tractors and plantation in 112 hectares completed. "We will also purchase an earth-mover shortly to dig trenches to keep the cattle away from these new plantation areas," he said.

The re-plantation drive is a part of the revival package of the company as experts feel that 80 per cent of tea bushes in the ATCL gardens are over 80 years old and have lost their productivity.