Workers link wage issue and vote The Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) has called for a complete shutdown of tea estates across the poll-bound State on March 22 over the issue of plantation workers’ daily wages. The body has also resolved to launch a State-wide awareness campaign against the BJP-led government for “deliberately exploiting” plantation workers by using “wage as a tool” for extracting votes from them. The decisions against the wage hike “deceit” and “indifferent attitude” of the BJP were taken at an emergency executive meeting of the association in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh on Thursday. The March 22 shutdown assumes significance ahead of the first phase of polling on March 27, which covers 47 seats, mostly in the tea-growing areas of eastern Assam.