Tea Laborers of 3 Darjeeling Tea gardens without wage

Workers of the three closed Darjeeling tea gardens, now with the government, have not received their payments since March.

Workers of Peshok, Vah-Takvar in Darjeeling sub-division and Putung located in Kurseong sub-division had been receiving a monthly relief of Rs 500. These gardens used to be under the Tea Trading Corporation of India (TTCI), a body under Union ministry of commerce and industries.

Labor officials here said that after March there has been no allotment towards relief payment to the workers, neither has there been any communication on the matter by relevant authorities.

“We don’t even know what is happening with the TTCI, whether it exists at all,” said an official.

“The last we knew was that the Centre wanted to dissolve the TTCI,” he added. Reportedly, the TTCI handed over Putung Tea Estate to the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation in 2002. The TTCI had taken over the garden, with a workforce of 230 and a population of 1050 in 1985. It ceased operations in 2000.

The Peshok Tea Estate, a garden comprising of nearly 1000 workers and around 331 hectares have been closed since 1996. Vah Tukvar Tea Estate was also closed about the same time and it has about 700 workers.

Source> The Statesman