Nodal Officers for closed tea gardens

The Jalpaiguri district administration has decided to appoint one nodal officer for every three closed tea garden in the Dooars.

To be of the rank of deputy magistrate, the officials will be responsible for monitoring development schemes, distribution of relief and extension of medical facilities on regular basis at these estates.

The announcement came 24 hours after Anuradha Talwar, the adviser from Bengal to the food commissioner of the Supreme Court, alleged that the government did not have the machinery to keep tabs on abandoned estates and depended on unreliable sources for information.

Announcing the decision in Jalpaiguri today, Talwar, who is on a three-day recce of the closed estates, said: “I have discussed the situation with the additional district magistrates and the zilla parishad sabhadhipati. They have said deputy magistrates will be appointed in the closed gardens.”

Talwar has suggested a number of remedial measures, some of which are:

Open community kitchen in every closed estate

Provide constant and free medical aid

Keep complaint books at the block and panchayat offices so that workers can voice their grievances

“The basic problem is that though several schemes and proposals are finalised at the district and state level, a fraction of these actually filter down,” Talwar said.

The apex court representative visited Ramjhora today and is scheduled to attend a meeting with workers of closed estates at Birpara, 100 km from here, tomorrow.

Banamali Roy, the sabhadhipati of Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad, admitted that there had been some “initial hiccups while implementing the 100 days-work scheme” in the closed estates.

RSP demand

Members of Dooars Cha Bagan Workers’ Union — affiliated to the RSP’s trade union wing — have demanded that the closed tea gardens be handed over to West Bengal Tea Development Corporation.

“The development body is successfully running three gardens — Hila, Sonali and Mohua. We want them to take over the closed gardens in the Dooars and run them using funds from Tea Board of India. Today I am leaving for Calcutta to take it up with the chief minister,” said Suresh Talukdar, the president of the tea workers’ union.

Source: The Telegraph