While replying to Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha of the Congress in the Assembly roday, he said Assam has 767 tea estates and 78,268 small tea gardens.
The wages are determined jointly by the tea estate owners and the workers' union either at bipartite level or through negotiations, Patowary said.
To remove the disparity in wages of tea workers in the two valleys, the minister said it has to be decided between the garden workers' unions and the estate owners.