Assam to "strictly" implement Plantation Labour Act in tea gardens

Expressing dissatisfaction over the non-implementation of the Plantation Labour Act by some tea garden managements, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today asked the labour and employment department to "strictly" enforce the various provisions of the Act in tea gardens. He also asked the department to take "stringent" punitive action against the tea gardens managements those failed to comply by the act and act accordingly.

The state government has also now made it mandatory that a tea garden must have all the facilities under the Plantation Labour Act before it could be sold off. The Plantation Labour Act was enacted in 1951 to provide for the welfare of plantation labour and regulates the conditions plantation workers.

Recently, chief minister's advisor, PP Varma, had made an in-depth study of the working conditions in tea gardens of the state and come up with recommendations for certain improvements, especially in the health and education sectors. It was also found that the management of some gardens in the state were not been offering the facilities they ought to provide under the said Act.

A Judicial Commission was constituted to study the working conditions in the tea gardens of the state by the state government to suggest suitable measures for improvement in housing, health, education and other facilities in the tea gardens under the Act.

The chief minister asked the labour and employment department to start implementing the provisions of the Act through a time-bound action plan. Gogoi told the officials that he would review the status of implementation of the Act from time to time.

The meeting was attended, among others, by minister for labour and employment and tea tribes welfare, Prithibi Majhi, principal secretary to the chief minister, MGVK Bhanu and secretary, labour and employment, Amlan Baruah.