Assam: Tea garden workers stage protest in Doomdooma.

Guwahati: Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his family have illegally grabbed nearly 12,000 bighas of land—over 3,960 acres across different parts of the state. The ruling BJP has not issued an immediate response to the allegations.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters, Rajiv Bhawan, Gogoi said the claims were based on an internal investigation conducted by the party, which, he asserted, had produced “startling revelations.”

“Almost 12,000 bighas of land have been occupied by the Chief Minister and his family across Assam,” Gogoi alleged, adding that the figure was tentative as the inquiry was still ongoing and could reveal more.

He further said the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has launched a statewide campaign to trace the sources of the Chief Minister’s assets. As part of the initiative, the party has unveiled a website titled ‘Who Is HBS’, aimed at collecting information related to Sarma’s assets and financial dealings.

Gogoi said members of the public have been urged to share inputs through the website, a dedicated QR code, or a helpline number—9133400200 to facilitate digital submissions.

The Jorhat MP also accused the Chief Minister of reviving allegations about Gogoi’s alleged links with Pakistan to divert attention from the land grab accusations. Sarma had earlier claimed he would make public evidence of Gogoi’s purported links by September 10, 2025.

“Why did he not release the evidence on September 10 last year? He has remained silent for five months and has suddenly remembered my so-called Pakistan links,” Gogoi said. “He knows we are preparing a dossier on his and his family’s corruption and alleged land grab. That is why this issue has been raised again.”

Calling the allegations against him a “flop show,” Gogoi reiterated that the Chief Minister was attempting to deflect scrutiny from serious corruption charges. He made the remarks in his capacity as the Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, even before the press conference concluded, APCC media department chairman Bedabrata Bora claimed that the newly launched website had been hacked. According to Bora, the website briefly displayed the message “HBS 2.0.”

Bora alleged that the hacking was carried out by the BJP’s IT cell. However, the BJP did not immediately respond to either the hacking allegation or the land grab claims.Tinsukia: Hundreds of tea workers, supported by members of the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA), Doomdooma unit, on Wednesday laid siege to the main entrance of the Deamoolie Tea Estate office in Tinsukia district, protesting deteriorating living conditions, unemployment and a failing education system.

The protest, which lasted nearly two hours, was organised under the ATTSA’s Baghjan–Dighaltarang sub-unit and witnessed active participation from tea workers. The estate’s main gate turned into a flashpoint of anger, marking one of the most determined localised agitations in the area in recent months.

Demonstrators accused the tea estate management of prolonged neglect, alleging that workers’ quarters, sanitation facilities and basic social infrastructure had been allowed to deteriorate over the years. Raising slogans and holding placards, protesters remained stationed at the gate, effectively disrupting normal movement at the estate.

Leading the protest, ATTSA Doomdooma unit president Irot Tanti said the protest was organised to press for the immediate resolution of long-pending demands.

“Today, under the Assam Chah Janajati Chatra Santha, Doomdooma unit, a two-hour protest was organised at the main entrance gate of Deamoolie tea garden with the cooperation of tea workers,” Tanti told Northeast Now. “We demanded immediate repair of residential quarters and toilets, employment for unemployed youths against vacant posts, and appointment of teachers in primary schools as per the prescribed student–teacher ratio. These demands must be fulfilled at the earliest.”

During the protest, a detailed memorandum outlining the demands was formally submitted to the tea estate management amid tight security arrangements.

Activists said the Deamoolie protest reflects a broader and intensifying agitation across Assam’s tea belt, where workers and students’ bodies have increasingly raised concerns over inadequate wages, crumbling housing, chronic unemployment among youth and acute shortages of teachers in garden schools.

Many organisations are now demanding a daily wage of Rs 551, arguing that the existing minimum wage in the Brahmaputra Valley has become grossly insufficient in 2026 due to rising costs of food, fuel, education and healthcare.

The education crisis within tea estates remains particularly severe. Overcrowded classrooms, often managed by a single teacher handling dozens of students, continue to push dropout rates among children from tea communities well above the state average, activists said.

While the Assam government has announced incremental wage revisions and land-rights initiatives for tea garden workers since early 2026, protest leaders alleged that implementation on the ground has been patchy and slow, further fuelling discontent.

ATTSA leaders warned that the Deamoolie action was only the beginning. In the absence of swift and visible action on housing repairs, sanitation, employment and school staffing, they cautioned that similar gate sieges and larger coordinated protests could soon spread across tea-growing districts including Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo and Sivasagar.

The Deamoolie Tea Estate management did not respond to the demands raised in the memorandum. The district labour department had also not issued any official statement at the time of filing this report.