"Assam: Tea workers protest against OIL’s bid to acquire garden land in Tinsukia", 25 June 2022

Hundreds of plantation workers under the banner of Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) on Friday staged a protest at the Nalani tea estate in upper Assam’s Tinsukia district over Oil India Limited (OIL)’s acquisition of 35 bighas of garden land for setting up of an Oil Collecting Station (OCS)...

The ACMS led by its central vice president and former Congress legislator from Chabua Raju Sahu also extended support to the protest. 

Talking to media persons, Raju Sahu said, “...Thousands of tea bushes were uprooted for setting up the unit. We won’t have any objection if they had acquired barren tea garden land for setting up the same. Since the livelihood of hundreds of tea workers is at stake we are strongly opposing it.”

He further said, “The tea industry is being systematically destroyed by such senseless acts by the tea garden management. We have seen that tea garden land of tea estates like Dhelakhat, Limbuguri, Khamti Gowali, Hatiali, Ahmedi, Sealkotee, Hukanpukhuri, Dinjan, Balijan North, Naduwa, Khaojan, Dikom have been sold for industrial and commercial purposes.

“The land acquisition process should be stopped immediately. We can’t allow them to destroy the tea bushes in front of our eyes as thousands of workers are dependent on the tea garden for their livelihood,” he added...