Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday held a meeting with representatives of a tea workers' organisation and other stakeholders and discussed ways to revamp the gardens of Assam Tea Corporation.
It was decided in the meeting that ATC may lease out some of its tea gardens in the wake of difficulties in managing such assets, an official release said.
The chief minister also said that if parties or groups that would take control of the management of tea gardens fail to disburse dues and other entitlements of workers, ATC will have the right to take over the management of those gardens.
The government will constitute three-member committees, each for Barak and Brahmaputra valleys, to safeguard the pay structure and other entitlements of tea workers, he said.
Minister for Tea Tribe Welfare Sanjay Kishan, Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha president Paban Singh Ghatowar, Assam Tea Corporation chairman Rajdeep Goala, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Samir Kumar Sinha and other officials were present at the meeting, the release added.