The Assam government’s initiative to force tea industry to stop disbursing wages to 10-12 lakh workers in cash and take bank transfer route, if successful, might be a game changer for the region as it would require capacity augmentation and realignment of both telecom and banking services.

The largest State in the North-East has poor teleconnectivity when compared to a Tripura or even Mizoram.

Dhekiajuli Tea Estate of Murugappa group in Sonitpur has broadband connectivity. Arun Tea of Gillanders Arbuthnot finds BSNL’s wi-fi services slow but steady.

But, drive a few kilometers past Orang in the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Area (BTAD) where Dunseri group has a number of estates and the trouble starts.

There are also likes of Namsung of Rossel Tea in Dibrugarh, where the manager runs around to find a sweet spot to talk over telephone.

According to the Indian Tea Association (ITA), that has 40 per cent estates on its roll, at least one-fifth of the gardens suffer from connectivity issues.

In the days of online banking, it is surely an impediment. The issue is so crucial that SBI, which accounts for half of the banking network, assigned an officer to liaison with State-run BSNL on a hourly basis.

The State government is also pushing all telcos to pull up socks. Efforts are on to pool services of RailTel that offers connectivity to rail stations.

Banking services

SBI chief general manager in Guwahati, PVSLN Murthy, says his bank will open the residual accounts and help start transacting wages through CSP network in a fortnight. He assures that for salary payment there is no disbursal limit on CSPs.

While account opening will surely be over sooner than later, paucity of delivery mechanism might come in the way of transacting through those accounts so soon.

The State currently has a CSP network of nearly 5,000 serving a crore customers. Theoretically, adding another 10-12 lakh accounts is not a tall task. But in practice, there are issues.

Tea industry pays wages on Friday and Saturdays. It means, the CSP at Jeypore in Dibrugarh which is now manned by two people needs to increase manpower a few times to disburse wages in four gardens, compromising business viability.

ATMs are no immediate solution either to cater to so many people on a single day. Recruiting new CSPs from the educated youth in gardens is solution.

Some gardens like Dhekiajuli has taken a lead in this context. But the process should take time to stabilise.

Also, banks are suffering from capacity constraints. Arun Tea has been pursuing financial inclusion since August 2014. Till date 200 of 1070 accounts are to be opened.

“The complete transition should take time and might be done in phases,” said a State official.

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