Dibrugarh, Feb 10: The All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam (AASAA) staged a two-hour protest in Chowkidingee, Dibrugarh, to voice their demands for increased wages, land rights, and the cancellation of the state’s tea tourism initiative, on Monday.

Organised by district committees from Dibrugarh, Charaideo, and Tinsukia, the protesters, comprising tea workers and their supporters, called for an increase in their daily wages by Rs 550 and demanded that land patta be granted to workers residing in tea garden areas.

“We want the daily wage of the tea workers to increase by Rs 550, and land patta for the workers,” said a member of AASAA.

The association also raised concerns about the difficulty workers face in acquiring land. “Tea garden workers need a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the garden management to own land, but the management never provides this certificate. The government’s Vasundhara 3.0 scheme promises benefits for land ownership, but it is not helpful to the workers,” added the AASAA member.

Another key demand was for the Tea Tribe community to be granted Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. “We want our caste certificates to directly reflect our tribal identities—Orang, Munda, and Oriya. We do not want any new titles,” a protestor declared.

The protest also focused on the controversial tea tourism project initiated by the Assam government. “The tea tourism project taken up by the state government is of no use to the workers. We demand its cancellation, as it will not benefit them,” one of the protestors stated.

This protest comes in the wake of the state's announcement of its first mega tea tourism project, set to be launched in Dibrugarh with an initial budget of Rs 300 crore.

The project, backed by the Luxmi Tea Company and supported by the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), is touted to include a wide range of social infrastructure, including a vocational training centre, educational institutes, a super-speciality hospital, wellness centres, luxury hotels, resorts, and more.

Despite the government's plans, AASAA remains firm in its opposition to the project, insisting that the focus should be on improving the living and working conditions of tea garden workers rather than on initiatives that don’t directly benefit them.