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Journalism of Courage
With 168 deaths due to diarrhoea reported from four districts — 122 from tea gardens in Jorhat and Golaghat — the Assam Government on Sunday held the tea estates’ managements responsible for the outbreak. According to the Government, the outbreak has roots in poor water-supply and lack of proper sanitation facilities in the tea estates.
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said: “The Health Department has decided to file FIRs against those tea garden managements where people have died due to diarrhoea. Joint Directors of Health in Jorhat and Golaghat have been asked to file FIRs.” Of the 168 diarrhoea deaths reported so far, 85 people have died in Jorhat alone, followed by Golaghat (37), Morigaon (29), and Dhubri (17). While Morigaon and Dhubri are not tea-growing districts, Sarma said the reason behind the outbreak in these two districts is three successive spate of floods.
He said the managements were repeatedly told to improve the drinking water supply and sanitation facilities in their labour colonies. “The deputy commissioners of Jorhat and Golaghat have called at least three meetings and told the tea managers to take steps. But they were not bothered,” Sarma said.
UNICEF and Assam Medical College teams, said the Minister, have made field surveys and found that water supply and sanitation facilities in the affected tea gardens were in a horrible state. In some gardens, there is only one tube-well for five labour lines. Similarly, there is hardly one latrine for one line of labour quarters,” Sarma added.
Sarma, however, refused to name the companies which owned the affected gardens. But what was interesting is that several gardens belonging to the state-owned Assam Tea Corporation have also been affected in the recent outbreak. Tea garden managements, on their part, have denied allegations. “Most of our member tea gardens have adequate and efficient drinking water and sanitation facilities,” said Debeswar Bora, Secretary of the Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA).
