Bowing to the pressure of tea garden workers demand, the Assam government on September 5^th, 2019, announced 20 per cent bonus for Durga Puja to the workers of the tea gardens under Assam Tea Corporation Limited. It was a long pending demand of the tea garden workers.

It may be mentioned that the minimum bonus for tea garden workers under the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 is 8.33 per cent, the maximum is 20 per cent.

On September 4^th, 2019, the members of the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) reiterating their demand of disbursement of 20 per cent bonus ahead of Durga Puja staged a protest at Upper Assam’s Tingkhong town.

The agitators holding placards, chanting slogans burnt effigies of Assam Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, Indian Tea Association chairman Vivek Goenka and Bidyananda Barkakoti, Adviser to the North Eastern Tea Association.

Graphic: TIME8