NEW DELHI, Dec 3 ? At least 293 tea gardens in Assam have defaulted in payments of Provident Fund (PF) dues, while 65 criminal cases have been filed so far against defaulting tea garden managements.
Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Sis Ram Ola in a letter to AGP MP, Sarbananda Sonowal, copy of which was released to the media informed that recovery cases against 164 tea gardens under Assam Tea Plantation PF schemes were underway, involving an arrears of Rs 37.67 crore. So far only Rs 4.06 crore have been realised.
The Union Minister further added that 12 FIRs have been lodged for arrests of culprits and necessary action was being taken against remaining 139 defaulting tea garden managements?. Assam Government has also reported to the Labour Ministry that payment of bonus to tea garden workers depended on the allocation surplus available in balance sheet under the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.
Meanwhile, acting on complaints the Union Labour Ministry wrote to the State Chief Secretary asking him to look into the reports of non-implementation of the provisions of the Plantation Labour Act, violation of the PF law and failure of the tea garden managements to report the correct picture of profit and loss.