Khowai: Tension gripped Dholabil Tea Garden in Khowai after tea plants were bulldozed to clear land for a proposed government office, triggering sharp protests from workers who halted the work on the spot.
Workers said they noticed bulldozers cutting down tea plants in a section of the garden and rushed to the site to ask why. A contractor present told them the administration had selected the area for a government office and that land-clearing was underway accordingly.
Angered by the response, workers immediately stopped the work, questioning how such an exercise could begin without prior notice to the tea garden’s cooperative society, which has its own president and secretary.
The workers pointed out that nearly a thousand families once depended on the garden, though the workforce has now dwindled to around two hundred, who survive largely on the tea plants still standing. They warned that indiscriminate felling would deepen the livelihood crisis.
They said the matter would be taken up with the Khowai Sub-Divisional Magistrate and demanded that all cutting and clearing work be suspended until discussions were held with the administration, cooperative society and worker representatives. Resentment continues to simmer in the area.