3 Tea gardens abandoned in 24 hours

Three gardens have been abandoned in the Dooars in the past 24 hours.

The 2,295 workers of Dalsinghpara tea estate, 8 km from here, were left in the lurch when the management fled the garden yesterday, the day on which the workers were supposed to get their wages and ration.

This is the third garden to be abandoned yesterday.

On the plea that the liabilities of Kalchini and Raimatang tea estates were far in excess of what was mentioned in the agreement when they were bought in November, entrepreneur Gopi Nath Das yesterday had ordered his managerial staff to leave the gardens.

In Dalsinghpara, it was pay-day yesterday and Rs 8.56 lakh was required to clear the wages. Workers alleged that eight managerial staff members, who told them that they were short by Rs 90,000, left the garden one by one on the pretext of getting the deficit amount from the bank.

The only person left was a factory assistant, Suman Raina, who left the garden this afternoon.

“I received a fax from our head office in Calcutta today stating that payment will be made to all workers barring the 429 who were served notices for being absent from work on December 8 last year. However, the workers’ union has rejected the offer,” Raina said before leaving.

Manohar Tirkey, the secretary of the Dooars Cha Bagan Mazdoor Union, said the garden was taken over by the Calcutta-based LMJ International Ltd in June 2004. “They had promised to clear the dues, but did not. As a result, more dues have accrued since then. The workers have not been paid four months’ wages, provident fund and gratuity worth more than a crore,” Tirkey said.

He said despite issuing a notice yesterday that wages would be distributed, the management made a criminal offence by not paying up.

The deputy secretary of the Dooars Branch of Indian Tea Association, Pranjal Neogy, said he had no information on Dalsinghpara tea garden.

In the meantime, the management of Kalchini and Raimatang tea gardens were absent from the meeting convened today in Alipurduar by assistant labour commissioner M. Saha.

“We have asked the assistant labour commissioner to ensure that essential supplies are sent to the two gardens,” said Rabi Mitra, the secretary of the Citu-affiliated Cha Bagan Mazdoor Union.

Source > The Telegraph