Assam: 31 tea garden workers injured after overloaded van overturns

At least 31 tea garden workers, including nine women and a minor, sustained severe injuries after a van carrying them overturned in Assam’s Cachar district on Monday evening. According to the injured individuals, the van was overloaded and there were 40 workers travelling in it.

The incident took place on a road connecting Barthal and Thailu tea gardens and the Bolero pickup van was carrying the tea garden workers to Langlacherra area, according to the injured workers.

“The vehicle lost control and it fell off the road and overturned. Some of the workers managed to jump out but rest of us became victims,” a worker said.

The injured workers were taken to the Labac Hospital. After the initial treatment, doctors of the Labac Hospital sent four of them to the Silchar Medical College and Hospitals (SMCH).

Dr R Tarat from Labac Hospital said that 10 of the 31 injured persons are female and of them one is a 13-year-old. Rest of the 20 are adult men. Four of the injured workers are critical.

“Those four have deep injuries, some have broken jaws, some have head injuries. After initial treatment, we sent them to SMCH for surgical treatment,” he said.

“Tea garden workers are being treated like animals and there is no end to this cruelty (of carrying them in overloaded vehicles). I wrote letters to several authorities but no response came,” said Dharmendra Tewaria, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist.