Greenfield Airport in Dolu: Officers gheraoed by huge protest at Lalbag Tea Estate

Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mansur Mazumdar along with top officials of the Lalbag Tea Estate in Borkhola, got gheraoed by hundreds of protesters. The tea garden workers realised that the delegation had reached to survey the proposed spot for the construction of Greenfield Airport.

Police officials, paramilitary forces were deployed to control the protesters and rescue the government official and the management of the tea estate. The protesters said that Ghungoor Tea Garden was taken over to construct Silchar Medical College and Hospital. Several hundred tea garden workers had to relocate in search of bread and butter. Similarly, Dargakona tea estate became non-existant after the land was acquired for Assam University. Massive eviction drives were conducted during the construction of Regional Engineering College Silchar which is now the National Institute of Technology. While tea garden workers were evicted, their jobs were taken away, none of their kin got any employment opportunities at those establishments.

The protesters went on to allege that they are being kept in the dark and that is why All Assam Tea-Tribe Students Union members were not allowed to meet the chief minister of the state, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma when he had visited Silchar.

The protest continued for hours, they also questioned the motive behind identifying this particular spot for the construction of Greenfield Airport. According to them, there is a waterbody that the tea garden workers use for their daily life that will get destroyed. Their roadway will get diverted. We don’t want to be called trespassers as happened at National Institute of Technology.