Assam plans to build homes for retired tea garden workers

The Assam government has drawn up a plan to provide homes to the retired tea garden workers of the state, an official said.
"Tea garden workers own no homes. The ownership lies with the garden management. Assam government has come up with a scheme to provide houses on ownership basis," additional chief secretary to the chief minister of Assam MGVK Bhanu told PTI.
He said that the government would allot the land required for building the homes and would develop it.
"The land will be adjacent to the gardens, but not used for tea purposes," Bhanu, former chairman of Tea Board, said adding "the chief minister wants this to happen and this is his pet project".

Assam Assembly elections are due in 2016.
The work would be completed in a time-bound manner and currently identification of the land was being done. The approximate cost would be Rs 400 crore, Bhanu said.

To a query, he said that land would be given free to the workers and a subsidy of Rs 25,000 would be provided each to the workers to build the house.
Assam, the largest tea producing state, has around 10 lakh tea garden workers.
The project would be completed in phases, he said.
To another query, he said that in Assam no tea garden worker is dying.