Workers at Bogidhola Tea Estate in Golaghat district have protested after the garden's name was left off an official state list of closed tea gardens, a list Labour Minister Rameswar Teli tabled in the Assam Legislative Assembly's summer session, The Sentinel reported. The list was compiled in response to a question from former Labour Minister Sanjay Kishan asking which gardens statewide remain closed.

Bogidhola, in the Morangi area, has stood idle since December 2017. Workers had gathered outside the owners' bungalow that December to demand unpaid dues and an annual bonus the management had promised to clear by December 12 and had not. The next day, the owners, Sudhir Roy and Samir Roy, opened fire on the protesting workers, injuring at least ten of them, according to contemporaneous reporting by The Tribune and Scroll.in. Police arrested both owners. The garden has not reopened since.

Members of the Khumtai branch and Morangi sub-branch of the Assam Tea Tribes Students' Association organized the latest protest, telling The Sentinel that the government has taken no effective steps to reopen the estate and restore workers' livelihoods. The Sentinel's report does not say why the state's list omits Bogidhola, and the Labour Department has not publicly explained the gap.

It is the second time this year the Khumtai branch has raised Bogidhola's case. In February, it said the garden's workers had gone without the state's "Eti Koli, Duti Pat" payment, a scheme that has put a one-time Rs 5,000 (about US$60) in the hands of some seven lakh other tea garden workers and employees statewide, The Sentinel reported at the time. A garden the state's own list does not count as closed is a garden whose workers do not show up in the schemes built for one that is.

Sources: The Sentinel Assam, "Bogidhola Tea Estate Workers Protest Exclusion from Assam's Closed Tea Garden List"; The Sentinel Assam, "Protest by Workers at Bogidhola Tea Garden in Golaghat"; The Tribune, "10 hurt as tea estate owners open fire on workers"; Scroll.in, "Assam: Ten tea estate workers injured after owners fire at them in Golaghat district"; Assam Talks, "Assam Cabinet Approves ₹342 Crore Scheme to Benefit 7 Lakh Tea Garden Workers".