Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday reviewed the status of land acquisition and rehabilitation for the proposed Greenfield airport in Silchar.
At the 6th Conference of District Commissioners here in Guwahati, the chief minister directed the District Commissioner of Cachar to ensure expeditious construction of alternate accommodation for tea garden workers so land is made available for the airport.
Notably, the chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in February last year announced construction of a Greenfield airport in Cachar using a part of the Daloo tea garden.
The government has estimated to pay a sum of Rs 50 crore to build the airport using 2,500 bigha land of the tea garden. The owner has agreed to go ahead with the deal but workers are unhappy with the decision.
Following this, more than 2,000 workers of Cachar’s Daloo Tea Garden started to protest against it and they once said, the government has to kill them before destroying tea plants.
It was learnt that the tea garden workers had been protesting since the announcement of the project.
Later in the month of March last year, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Doloo Tea Company Private Limited, various trade unions representing the tea garden workers and the district administration at the office of the Cachar deputy commissioner here to set up a greenfield airport in the tea estate.
As per the new proposal, around 2,500 bighas of land will be provided by the tea estate for the construction of a Greenfield airport for Barak Valley.
The MoU was reportedly signed to protect the jobs of the tea garden workers so that the reduction in the land pool does not result in job loss.
The agreement also stated that upon receipt of compensation from the state government, all the dues to the tea estate’s workers will be cleared and the company will not retrench or lay off any worker.
