Tea Workers paid their dues

More than 4,000 workers from three closed tea gardens in the Dooars were paid their dues today under the 100-days employment guarantee scheme.

Kalchini gram panchayat pradhan Prem Kumar Lama handed out nearly Rs 20 lakh to 4,112 workers of Raimatang, Chinchula and Kalchini estates. “We are paying them wages for seven days of work from February 15,” said Lama. “Each of them received Rs 476.”

Kalchini and Raimatang have been shut since February 2006 while Chinchula closed down in November 2005.

Unit president of National Union of Plantation Workers at Chinchula Anjukush Minj said: “We have been sanctioned 14 days’ work for renovating the garden’s drainage system and pruning the tea bushes. But we need another 50 days to complete maintenance activities.”

Garden work has been included in the 100-days employment scheme at the insistence of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Source: The Telegraph