Tea garden workers in Assam's Biswanath raise long-pending grievances ahead of Lok Sabha elections

By Hemanta Kumar Nath
Biswanath (Assam) [India], April 10 : The tea garden workers in Sonitpur Lok Sabha constituency in Assam's Biswanath district demanded to resolve their long-pending grievances while alleging that political parties are 'using' them as a vote bank at the time of elections.
With more than 16.25 lakh voters in Sonitpur Lok Sabha constituency, a large number of voters are from the tea garden areas. There are 9 assembly constituencies under the Sonitpur seat.

Rina Tosa, mother of three girls and a tea garden labourer, is still struggling to support her family. She lost her husband a few years back and she earns Rs 1310 per week by working in the Shakomato tea garden in Biswanath.
"During the election, the political parties, and candidates make many promises, but after the election, they forget everything. We are facing a lot of problems. I am a widow and I didn't get anything. I am a mother of three girls. I filled up the forms for many schemes in the last 4-5 years, but I didn't get anything. I am a daily wage labourer and get Rs 1310 weekly as wage. I get ration from the government, but we are facing many problems. I request the government to provide land patta to us," Rina Tosa said.

Bhanu Goala, another tea garden labourer told ANI that the political parties make many guarantees to them during the election time but never fulfil them.
"Daily we get Rs 230 and Rs 1310 per week as wage. I have a 6-member family. How can we live with just Rs 1310, but we have no option because we are tea garden workers? During the election time, the political parties, and candidates assure us that they would increase the daily wage, but it never happened. We demand to increase our daily wage to Rs 600 per day. After the election, the political parties, and candidates forget all things and our living style remains the same. Every year the same thing is happening. The candidates and political parties got our votes, but they have failed to resolve our problems. Price hike of essential commodities also hit us," Bhanu Goala said.
Manju Munda, another tea garden worker at Shakomato tea garden said that many workers are finding it hard to manage the day-to-day expenses due to low wages.
"How can we live with this wage? We are facing massive problems. Per kg rice price is Rs 40, and we have to buy our clothes, medicine, and spend on children's education. The government should think about our problems. During the election time, political parties have made many promises, but the reality is nothing. The government has given us something, but many of us have yet to get it. I am still living in a broken house. I have a five-member family," Manju Munda said.

Assam will be voting in three phases on April 19, April 26 and May 7. Sonitpur will go to polls in the first phase along with four others namely Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Lakhimpur and Kaziranga.
The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19. The counting will take place on June 4.