Guwahati, Dec 20: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today directed the state labour department to reactivate the 71 defunct skill centres in tea garden areas and develop modalities to transform them into skill development centres for youths.
“The present state government is committed to empower the youths of tea gardens and a blue print will be prepared for revitalising the skill centres to generate employment’’, Sonowal said during a meeting with Assam Tea Tribe Students’ Association (ATTSA).
The state government will make the ground clear so that the tea gardens can reap rich dividends from the Central and state government schemes, he said.
“We have to add wings to the hope, dreams, aspirations of lakhs of our people living in tea garden areas by making government schemes accessible to them”, he added.
An MoU will be signed between Panchayat and Rural Development and Tea Garden Management where the houses of tea gardens labourers will be assessed and upon the findings of the survey new dwelling houses will be constructed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Sonowal also called for appointing project managers who will be in charge of making the inroads for effective project implementation and sanitary latrines will be constructed for every household in the tea garden areas to ensure adherence of Open Defecation Free areas.
The Chief Minister also assured to take a sympathetic look into the 36 point charter of demands submitted to him by the ATTSA delegation which comprises its President Rajen Kumar, General Secretary Paban Bedia and Assistant Secretaries Biraj Gowala and Ranjit Thakur.
