Tinsukia district Congress president and former Doomdooma MLA Durga Bhumij on Friday visited the devastated families of Gelapukhuri Tea Estate in Tinsukia, where 19 workers were killed in the tragic December 8 accident in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district.
Accompanied by senior Congress leaders including Tinsukia Congress unit treasurer Tonmoy Borkotoky, Bhumij visited all the bereaved families in the estate’s number 13 labor line, offering condolences and promising party support during their time of grief.
The two-time MLA made an urgent appeal to the Assam government to provide immediate relief to the families who have lost their primary breadwinners.
“The Assam government must provide financial assistance to the families of the deceased and jobs to kin of the deceased families,” Bhumij stated highlighting the dire situation facing widows and orphaned children left behind by the tragedy.
The Congress delegation’s visit comes as the tea estate community remains shrouded in grief, with many families still waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to return home. The 19 workers from Gelapukhuri, along with three from neighbouring Dhelaghat tea estate, died when their truck plunged into a 1,000-feet-deep gorge while traveling to Chaglagam for construction work.
The victims, most of whom were casual workers earning Rs 250 per day at the tea estate, had ventured to Arunachal Pradesh lured by promises of Rs 700 daily wages. Their deaths have left behind at least a dozen widows, numerous orphaned children, and families facing economic ruin.
Bhumij’s demand for government jobs for family members addresses the critical question haunting the estate: how will these families survive without their breadwinners? With victims leaving behind young wives like 18-year-old Mala Tanti, married just 15 days before the tragedy, and mothers like Rosemary Chatriya with four daughters under six years old, employment for surviving family members could mean the difference between destitution and survival.
