Guwahati, Sept 20: Private sector tea major Hindustan Lever Limited would not evacuate its managers or their families from company's tea gardens in Assam. An HLL spokesman said on Friday that the company was committed to its continued presence in Assam and had been extending its activities in the state making substantial investments.
The company rejected as "speculative and bereft of truth" local media reports that the management had decided to declare a lockout in its gardens and evacuate its executives and their families if its garden labourers insisted on more than 8.33 per cent Durga Puja bonus

Giving an account of HLL's investments in Assam as testimony of its commitment to the state, the spokesman said that the company initially had seven tea gardens and then acquired as many subsequently, besides setting up a Rs 95-crore state-of-the-art industrial factory to manufacture consumer goods at Doom Dooma in Tinsukia district.
On the parallel drawn between the situation now and the tea major evacuating its officials and their families in 1990, he clarified that the issue then involved unfair and illegal demands by militants. Bureau Report