GUWAHATI: Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday firmly asserted that people of the state would never allow any vested interest to tarnish the image of Assam’s tea.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are associated with the tea sector in Assam and the state government is very vigilant about all conspiracies that are being hatched against them. All such attempts will be foiled,” Sonowal said while distributing land pattas to 471 small tea growers of Dibrugarh district and laying the foundation for a district science centre.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his speech at Dhekiajuli on Sunday, had spoken about a conspiracy at the international level to malign the image of Indian tea, where Assam is a significant contributor.
Sonowal said by providing land pattas to the small tea growers, the government has established their right over the land. He added that small tea growers realized the potential of the field very late and took up cultivation approximately 160 years after the discovery of tea in Assam.
The chief minister further informed that no previous government had understood their sufferings, while he had been raising their issues since he was the MLA from Moran. The chief minister also assured that he will look into each of their problems, including land survey, timely supply of fertilizers, promoting use of organic fertilizer and exposure tours for all small tea growers.
Minister of state in-charge of revenue and disaster management, Jogen Mohan, while speaking during the programme, said the present government has provided land pattas to small tea growers and has fixed a premium of Rs 1,000 per bigha to upto 30 bighas of land. He added that steps were also taken to provide land pattas to upto 75 bighas following appropriate zonal valuation. The minister further informed that in Dibrugarh district, 14,216 local landless families were provided land pattas by the current BJP-led government.