Militancy Returns To Assam Tea Gardens
The spectre of militancy again looms large over the tea estates of Assam.
Most planters are convinced Saturday nights ambush of Nagrijuli tea estate manager Sukhpal Singh was triggered by his refusal to pay Rs 1 crore as demanded by the outlawed Bodo Security Force in November last year. Singhs wife and two security guards were killed in the incident.
The state polices initial theory that the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) could be behind the attack has not yet been verified. The possibility of a joint attack by Ulfa and the Bodo Security Force has also not yet been ruled out.
Nagrijuli, located on the border with Bhutan, is a 250 ha garden which produces about 6 lakh kg of tea a year. A member-garden of the Tea Association of India (TAI), Nagrijuli belongs to the Calcutta-based Derby Tea & Industries owned by the Dagas. Out of Assams nearly 800 gardens, 160 are TAI members. The Indian Tea Association (ITA) has 269 member-gardens in Assam. The rest are mostly proprietorial gardens and are members of smaller associations.
The incident has shaken the states tea community at a time when the industry has drawn up plans to produce an additional 150 million kg of tea during the next 10 years (1997-2006). The state produced 425 million kg of tea in 1996 out of Indias total production of 780 million kgs.
TAI president Bharat Bajoria, in a letter to Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, said the tea industry in Assam was again in the grip of absolute insecurity and sought appropriate action by the state authorities to ensure protection to the planters and garden property.
A senior industry official said productivity would be hit if fear kept the supervisory personnel of the gardens indoors. But we cannot take any chances and have, therefore, directed the garden managers and other executives to restrict their movement and not to travel during the night, he said.
The ITA has raised a 2,200-man strong Assam tea plantation security force to combat the militants.