India: Hundreds of tea workers protest acquisition of tea garden land & uprooting of tea bushes
Summary
Date Reported: 25 Jun 2022
Location: India
Companies
Unilever - Buyer , Ringtons Limited - Buyer , Nalani Tea Estate - Supplier , Tetley (part of Tata Consumer Products) - BuyerAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Workers: ( Number unknown - Location unknown , Tea , Gender not reported )Issues
Impacts on LivelihoodsResponse
Response sought: Yes, by BHRRC
Story containing response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Nalani Tea Estate supplied to Tetley, Unilever and Ringtons, according to the BHRRC Tea Supply Chain Tracker; Tetley, Unilever and Ringtons provided a response to a request for comment from the Resource Centre, and all informed the Resource Centre that they did not supply from the estate in 2022.
Source type: News outlet
"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...