A notification from Assam’s labour welfare division on the interim hike of Rs 50 within the every day wage of tea employees within the BJP-ruled state prompted the saffron camp in north Bengal to level out that tea wages within the Mamata Banerjee-ruled state have been decrease now as compared.
Each Assam and Bengal are set to face Meeting polls this summer time, making tea wages a political challenge in each.
On Tuesday, Assam’s principal secretary of the labour welfare division issued a notification, saying that with the hike, the every day money wage for the state’s tea employees (apart from these serving in tea gardens of the Barak valley) elevated to Rs 217 a day with impact from February 22. For tea employees of Barak valley, it’s Rs 195 a day.
In January this yr, the Bengal authorities revised the every day wage of tea employees on an interim foundation and it stands at Rs 202 a day now.
Manoj Tigga, the BJP MLA of Madarihat in Alipurduar district, stated that many state ministers and Trinamul leaders had in January “scoffed on the Assam authorities” for decrease wages there.
“Now that the Assam authorities has made the revision, the wage price is larger than Bengal. We’ll elevate this challenge as we exit to marketing campaign earlier than the Meeting elections,” stated Tigga.
Trinamul leaders dubbed the hike introduced by the Sarbananda Sonowal authorities as a ploy to woo Assam residents forward of the polls and underscored a slew of improvement schemes launched by the Bengal authorities for its tea inhabitants.
Mannalal Jain, a senior Trinamul chief within the Dooars and the vice-president of Cha Bagan Trinamul Mazdoor Union, stated such ways by the BJP gained’t work forward of the polls.
“In contrast to Assam, the state authorities right here has taken up many initiatives for tea employees, an important being free housing. Staff get meals grains from the state….Additionally, wage price right here is uniform, in contrast to Assam with a special price for Barak valley,” stated Jain, including that the Trinamul authorities reopened many closed tea gardens and improved infrastructure within the tea belt.
However Trinamul leaders are additionally conscious that almost all tea backyard residents had sided with the saffron camp within the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which helped the BJP win Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Darjeeling.
Ballot outcomes of some 15 Meeting segments in Bengal rely on the tea inhabitants.
