The proposal of construction of a Greenfield Airport in Cachar District vis-a-vis Barak Valley of Assam has been mooted by the Minstry of Aviation, GoI, as a part of the policy of infrastructural development of this region. This river valley has abundant barren land and ceiling surplus land. But for mysterious reason better known to the concerned authorities and stakeholders, the Govt selected a land which includes 2500 Bighas of green tea-plantation area of a largest and profit-making tea estate namely Doloo T.E under the ownership of Doloo Tea Company India limited, a largest T.E of this region in terms of yield. The present owner of this T.E. is very much eager to hand over the plantation area as the company can get compensation from the govt only on the basis of assesment of tea-trees which will be destroyed on land acquisition as the  owner of the land is not entitled to receive any compensation on land which was leased out to the owner during the inception of the tea industry in this region. It is learnt that the present owner is not the original owner and has taken sub-lease from the original owner. The owner is interested to grab huge amount of money he will receive at a time as compensation.

The local administration has not undertaken any drone-survey to develop map to ascertain whether the construction of airport is possible even in the adjoining land lying vacant as erstwhile T.E. land abandoned long back, not to speak of mapping of entire landmass of Barak Valley and such land-map has not been placed in public domain. The social and environmental audit as mandatory for land acquisition and development project have not been done and also not available in the public domain.

Any logic driven by common sense or any guesstimate can surmise that the destruction of this huge plantation areas will cause adverse impact on the lives and livelihood of thousands of workers and their family members and overall environment. Like all tea-plantation area, this land also contain big trees and bio-diversity. 

Apart from the people of entire region who will lose a green scenic area with huge potentiality of developing as a tourist spot and bear the brunt of environmental degradation, there are three direct stakeholders specific to land viz the Govt, the Tea-garden owner and the tea-workers. The tea-garden owners with clandestine understanding with few so called T.U. leaders masquerading as workers representatives unscrupulously and without any consultation with workers struck an agreement which has been endorsed by the local administration. This agreement is not only anti-workers, but also illegal. Though the T.E is profit-making, the agreement reveals that the owner did not deposit the workers P.F. contribution to P.F. fund and promised to do that on receipt of compensation against the destruction of tea-plantation. No specific proposal is mooted on how the workers who will lose their job due to reduction of plantation area and huge presence of surplus labour-force, will be rehabilitated. There are many clauses which go against the interest of the workers. The agreement even contains a confidentiality clause and was kept hidden from public domain for almost a month till it is handed over to a union which did not sign the agreement and demanded to put the agreement on public domain.

In the meantime, the workers became aware of such proposal of destruction of plantation area from media and other sources and became agitated from their angst and anxiety. To ventilate the workers sentiment Asom Mojuri Shramik Union, a registered T.U. and affiliated to New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI, New Delhi) approached the Govt and local administration for social and environmental audit and public hearing for obtaining workers' opinion. The administration once tried to demarcate the land with police force, but could not undertake the demarcation process due to workers' protest en masse. In this interim period, majority of workers joined the Asom Mojuri Shramik Union which formed the union committee in the T.E. and  became authorised union of this garden through due process. 

Subsequently, the administration conceded the union's demand of holding public hearing. Two public hearings were held in the garden in presence of district administration, tea garden management and all T.U. representatives. Thousands of workers unanimously rejected the proposal of handing over of plantation area and the agreement signed keeping the workers in dark. Post-public hearing, the workers mobilised peacefully in front of the D.C.'s office and submitted a memorandum rejecting the proposal of handing over of the land and agreement and signed by 2328 workers in consonance with the proposal put forward by the administration in public hearing for submission of workers opinion in writing.

Many other Trade Unions, social organizations of this district submitted memoranda to district administration and staged protest demonstration opposing the proposed handing over of a land destroying plantation area of a tea garden, the only form of big industry in this valley after the closure of big paper mill (HPC), and making the lives and livelihood of tea-workers and the environment vulnerable. The sitting MLA of this assembly segment where the said T.E. is situated also issued a press-statement opposing the handing over of plantation area. 

But despite all these, the tea-garden owner and the vested interests are bent on going ahead with their plan of handing over of the plantation land and the administration also has not yet either cancelled the proposal or put it on hold. The workers are psychologically pressurised with a threatening of garden lockout by the garden management on the conspiratorial ground of law and order situation and mobilising huge armed forces at the site by the administration in the name of security, though the workers are doing their routine daily work and registering their dissent through peaceful and democratic means. 

Under this circumstances, we the concerned citizens of India demand that there should not be any coercive measure for land acquisition, proper social and environmental audit must be done by the experts as mandated by the law and so called agreement which does not reflect the consent of the workers must be scrapped