Tea body urges Govt to stop ‘bandh culture’

Assam Polity and Governance

The 195-year-old Assam tea industry, which is already struggling for its survival, is currently facing a new threat in the form of ‘bandh culture’, said the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA).
Assam has a long history of many bandhs and agitations, but the functioning of tea gardens had never been hampered earlier.
However, of late, it has been observed that different organisations (not the recognised unions) call for bandhs every now and then andparalyse the normal functioning of the tea gardens.
It is to be understood that the green tea leaf is a perishable commodity. Plucking of tea leaves is a daily activity and it has to be processed in due course. Otherwise, this will lead to deterioration in quality of the final product and thereby tea gardens will become economically non-viable.
The loss of one day’s harvest cannot be made up the next day. Hence, a loss in work caused by these bandhs is a direct and irrevocable loss to the already ailing tea industry.

Ill-effects of bandh ‘culture’ in Assam

The people of Assam have been facing hard time due to frequent bandhs called by different organizations to pressurise the Government or the authorities concerned over their demands.
Bandh creates fear-psychosis among the people of the State. Bandh is like a culture in Assam and the locals observe bandh as a holiday. Frequent bandhs in Assam have crippled down the State’s economy. The bandh callers fail to realize it and appreciate the consequential ill-effects of bandh in social life.
The bandh demonstrators forces people to shut down their shops and warns people from travelling on roads on cars or other modes of transportation.
In 2010, Gauhati High Court declared bandh “illegal and unconstitutional” as it violates the citizens’ fundamental rights. The order was passed by a division bench comprising then Chief Justice Jasti Chelameswar and Justice Arun Chandra Upadhyay in the light of a 1997 Supreme Court order in connection with a Kerala High Court judgment declaring bandh “illegal’’.
Many organizations in Assam, mostly students’ organizations, feel that the best way to draw the Government’s attention towards their demands or protest against any Government move by calling bandh.
In Assam and other States in the Northeast, militant groups including United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), now ULFA-I, continue to call for bandh during Republic Day and Independence Day.