DIBRUGARH, Feb 16 – “Lok Sabha nirbachan ahi ase, Congressok vote diyok, ami apunalokok bahut kiba dim” (Lok Sabha polls are nearing, vote for the Congress, if you want favours from us), was the parting remark by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at the open session of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) at the historic Chowkidinghee Grounds here this afternoon.
The well attended open session of the golden jubilee celebrations of Assam’s most organised trade union was little about labour welfare, more about the Congress vote bank. Just passing references were made about the State’s great trade union activists who helped form the ACMS 50 years ago: Kamakhya Prasad Tripathi, Mahendra Nath Sarmah, Omeo Kumar Das, just to name three of them.
That the Congress treats the ACMS as its vote gathering machine was made abundantly clear by none other than Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi himself. He mentioned the sops offered to the tea labourers to consolidate the vote bank, but made no assurances that labourers’ PF payments would be released in time. Neither did he speak of any definitive plan for the revival of Assam Tea Corporation, except for saying that he is ready to lease out the company’s gardens if entrepreneurs come forward with a good package.
Earlier, the president of Indian National Trade Union Congress, G Sanjeeva Reddy said the INTUC would like to see the day when all the tea labourers of Assam are paid a decent compensation and pension package. He regretted that tea managements in general are prone to denying labourers their needs, and said this should not have been the case.
ACMS president Paban Singh Ghatowar earlier said the time has come for radical changes to the Plantation Labour Act for the welfare of tea labourers. While he blamed the AGP government for neglecting the labourers, none of the Congress leaders said anything about the achievements of the Congress party itself, when coming to amend the P L Act and other labour welfare measures. Between 1952 and 2009, the AGP has been in power for two five-year terms, and for the rest of the period, it has been the Congress that has run the government in Assam.
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