Darjeeling Tea Laborers' union threatens stir or Panighatta Tea Estate

Darjeeling, May 8: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union (DTDPLU) has threatened to launch an aggressive movement if there was no headway by the last week of this month regarding the Panighata tea estate.

Joint Labour Commissioner Sunil Kumar said the tripartite meet, which was scheduled for Sunday to decide fate of the closed plantation, could not take place as the owner Shankar Sharaf sent a letter requesting for more time and the said letter was later sent to the Darjeeling district magistrate.

Next meeting

With the next meeting’s date decided on May 25, the participating unions and the government decided to give the owner time till May 20, Kumar said.

Harihar Acharya, the Terai chief of the DTDPLU, said if the owner failed to attend that meeting too and the tea estate did not re-open by May 25-26, they will start a massive agitation in support of the hapless workers of Panighata, which is in its seventh month of closure now.

Other unions

Besides DTDPLU, the Himalayan Plantation Workers’ Union (HPWU) of the Gorkha National Liberation Front was also present during the deliberations.

“Despite several rounds of meetings for reopening the tea estate, the owner has not shown any interest to that effect. Now that we have given the May 25 deadline, he will stand responsible for the outcome of the agitation we have threatened to launch,” warned Acharya.

Panighata Tea Estate is spread across an area of about 1,200 acres and lies adjacent to forest area.

Since October 10 last year, when the garden was shut down indefinitely, 13 labourer deaths had been reported till date by the unions.

PTI

Unions in war over wages

Siliguri, Aug. 19: Some trade unions have decided to bargain for a tea wage higher than Rs 91 a day, even if it is only Rs 2-3 more, to win back those who had switched loyalties to join the Adivasi Vikas Parishad backed-Progressive Tea Workers’ Union (PTWU).

The decision comes a day after labour minister Purnendu Bose sent a feeler to the planters that the PTWU was ready to settle for Rs 91, a proposed daily wage that planters are not willing to consider.

An apex body of trade unions has also come down heavily on the PTWU for scaling down arbitrarily the demand for wages from Rs 250 to Rs 130 and finally to Rs 91 without consulting other labour organisations.

“The PTWU had initially demanded a daily wage of Rs 250 and during tripartite talks they had slashed it down to Rs 130. The tripartite talks ended inconclusively at the beginning of this month where we stuck to Rs 130. As a follow-up, the PTWU leaders resumed their old demand for Rs 250 but again, at the meetings with state ministers said they were ready to accept even Rs 91 as the revised rate,” Samir Roy, convener of the Defence Committee for Plantation Workers Rights, said. “We want the PTWU to clarify its stand as there is no surety that they will not put forward a fresh set of demands.”

Roy said the PTWU should have consulted the other trade unions and a joint decision taken for a better bargain.

But many trade unions leaders said the PTWU’s new rate has given them a face-saver as well as means to win back their supporters.

“We always knew that the planters would never agree to pay Rs 130. But we could not bring down our rates. Now that the PTWU has done it, it will be easier for us. But we will negotiate for rates like Rs 93 or Rs 95 per day. In that case we can tell the workers that we have got for them more than what the PTWU had got,” a senior trade union leader said.

All trade unions under the two apex bodies will discuss them at a meeting on August 27.”

Tea planters, however, have ruled out paying Rs 91. “Considering several aspects like production cost and tea prices, we had proposed an annual hike of Rs 8 for next three years at the end of which the wage will become Rs 91 after two years,” said Ranjit Dutta, secretary of the NB branch of Tea Association of India. “As of now, it is not possible for us pay Rs 91 as daily wage.”

Other planters said if there was pressure on them to pay even Rs 91, they would be forced to close down of gardens. “Many gardens run with marginal working capital and any sudden shortage may lead to non-payment of wages and other dues, followed by closure of these units,” a planter said.

The Telegraph

Shut down tea garden workers promised 50% increase in monthly revenue

Workers of shut tea gardens in the Dooars have been promised 50 per cent increase in the monthly financial assistance in this year’s budget.

Finance minister Asim Dasgupta, in his budget speech, said money given to the workers of the closed estates under the Financial Assistance to Workers of Locked Out Industries scheme would be increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500. The move would benefit 34,527 workers of the industry. He said of the 16 closed gardens in the region, eight were opened through joint initiatives by the state and the Centre. To expedite the reopening of the remaining ones, the state has granted tax and duty relief to both new and existing buyers.

The minister has also announced waiver for education and rural employment cess — charged seven paisa and five paisa respectively on every kilo of tealeaves — in the next financial year (see chart) in the tea estates of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and North Dinajpur districts.

Prabhat Mukherjee, the general secretary of the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers, while appreciating the decision to increase the monthly assistance, said it was unfortunate that the finance minister evaded two primary issues. “We had asked for continuation of payment of financial assistance to those who have crossed 58 years during the period of closure as the assistance is not paid when they retire. Secondly, he hardly touched on the proposal to provide land rights to the the tea workers,” he said.

The general secretary of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha-run West Bengal Cha Mazdoor Sabha, Samir Roy, however, apprehended that the waiver and relief might encourage closure of more estates. “A section of unscrupulous tea planters may take the opportunity and close down estates only to get the benefits of reopening,” he said.

Planters have hailed Dasgupta’s announcement. “It is good to hear that the cess has been waived for another year. This will surely help the tea industry to grow,” said Mohini Das, secretary, Terai Indian Planters’ Association.

But small growers, who account for about 30 per cent of north Bengal’s tea production, were not happy. “We had asked for abolition of the cess in our sector and waited to hear from the government,” said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the chairman of the United Forum of Small Tea Growers’ Associations. “It is disappointing that nothing as such has been spelt out by the minister today.”

From The Telegraph

Sick tea garden reopens in Dooars

Another sick tea garden in Jalpaiguri in Dooars called Bamandanga and Tondoo has reopened with the Ambootia Tea Group, one of the largest producers of Darjeeling tea, taking over the garden.

Earlier, this was one of the gardens in which case, the Tea Board had invoked Section 16 (E) of the Tea Act for taking over the garden and handing it over to a new owner. The garden was owned by Sajjan Agarwal. This garden has a licensed area of 310 hectares for tea cultivation and had outstanding financial liabilities of about Rs. 2 crore which included provident fund liabilities. It owed its banker, United Bank of India, over Rs. 16 crore.

From: The Hindu

Poll worry for parties, not for shut gardens

Workers of the closed tea estates and their families will exercise their franchise this time too, but political parties are at a loss to calculate the expected votes.

One of the reasons is that the garden electorate has refused to be swayed by promises from candidates to reopen the estates stalked by poverty and malnutrition once they get elected to the Lok Sabha.

“Ever since our garden was closed down, we have seen four polls and the coming general election is the fifth one. Every time, leaders come in convoys, spell out their parties’ policies, make commitments and leave. Nothing has, however, changed in the estate and we continue to be unemployed. We depend on the meagre amount doled out by the government and the odd jobs that we do now and then,” said Rajen Murmu, a worker of Kanthalguri Tea Estate that has been closed since July 2002.

The labourer said the residents of the garden had grown accustomed to the false promises. “Actually, none of us believe what these candidates say. We ignore them.”

The CPM, which claims to have a strong base in the Dooars brew belt, has been facing unpleasant questions even from its cadres in closed estates.

“We are depending on alternative means to earn money. We do not have the slightest hope that our garden will reopen even if the CPM candidate wins. In the past five-six years, people in closed tea estates have learnt the truth that the only interest of the parties is in the number of votes they can garner,” said Sania Bhumij, a worker of Raipur Tea Estate and a member of the Citu, the CPM’s labour wing.

Dejected though they may be, the workers are, however, not ready to boycott the polls. The election day has other appeals for them.

“It might sound funny but tea estates wear a festive look on that day. Several people flock the booths; children run around; elders take a puff and sip tea; women visit the makeshift shops in their best saris. This has been a practice for many years. It is more of a festival. It is a relief from the mundane life. The only difference this time is the lack of enthusiasm among labourers to work for any political party,” said Phanindranath Das, an employee of the closed Sikarpur and Bhandapur Tea Estate.

A Congress leader admitted that the workers were not much interested in attending meetings and listening to the leaders talk.

Besides empty promises, two other factors — the assertion of the Terai-Dooars co-ordination committee of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad that it will boycott polls and the growing clout of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in tea estates — have made the electoral results unpredictable.

“Considering the present situation, it is indeed tough for parties like the CPM and even the Congress (the Intuc, the Congress labour wing, has bases in some tea estates) to calculate the approximate votes they will get from the tea estates,” a CPM leader said in Jalpaiguri.

“Although campaigns are going on and responses are good, the Parishad’s call for poll boycott and the inclination of a section towards the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha have made equations complicated. The Citu may have a strong base in the gardens, but it is difficult for the CPM to predict who will win this time,” he added.

ABAVP threatens boycott of LS polls

The Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad leadership today threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha polls in Jalpaiguri district if the state government failed to fulfil its demands by 31 March.

According to the organisation’s Terai-Dooars coordination committee president, Mr John Barla, the tribals have lost faith in the Left Front Parliamentarians of the region. “The former RSP MP from Alipurduar constituency, Mr Joachim Buxla, did nothing for the tribals. He used to visit the locked tea plantations to seek votes but did not take the initiative to reopen the plantations while the workers continued to suffer. This year, the RSP has changed its candidate and nominated state PWD minister Mr Manohar Tirkey for Alipurduar constituency, but we are not convinced of his efficacy,” Mr Barla said.

According to the leader, the state government has done nothing for the development of the region. “We have been appealing for the last 61 years for development, to no avail. We have therefore decided to boycott the elections until the state government fulfils our demands.”

The unit’s secretary, Mr Rajesh Lakra, said their patience has crossed all limits. “The chief minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, met our delegation in Kolkata recently where we presented a 16-point charter of demands to him. We urged him to fulfil them by 31 March. We held a meeting at Nagrakata today and resolved to boycott the poll proceedings if our demands were not met by the stipulated date,” Mr Lakra said.

From SNS

Open-garden demand cloud on tea hike

The Bengal government’s decision to increase the financial assistance to workers of closed tea estates has evoked a mixed reaction in the brew belt.

While some have appreciated the decision saying that it would benefit the jobless workers, others have described it as a means to retain the vote bank in tea estates.

“We appreciate the decision that the workers in the closed gardens will receive Rs 1,000 under the FAWLOI (financial assistance to workers of locked out industries) scheme from next month instead of the existing Rs 750,” said Ajit Sarkar, the Darjeeling district secretary of the Citu. “We demand that the Centre extends similar assistance on regular basis, instead of occasional payments, and work with the state to reopen the estates.”

At present, over 13,000 workers in the 12 tea estates of the Dooars are covered under FAWLOI, said Rajat Pal, the deputy labour commissioner of Jalpaiguri. “We have heard the announcement but no orders have reached us so far.”

Those in the closed tea estates are, however, not so happy. “It is good that we will get Rs 250 extra but we doubt what will ultimately happen to us,” said Sania Bhumij, a worker of the closed Raipur tea estate. “The hike was announced after the government failed to reopen the closed gardens, even after declaring incentives for entrepreneurs.”

Samir Roy, the convener of the Defence Committee for Plantation Workers’ Rights, an apex body of tea trade unions, was harsh. “The state government has taken the easy route to please the aggrieved workers and provide some more alms before elections,” he said. “If the government would have used this fund for restructuring the gardens, the situation would have been much better today.”

Workers of Sikarpur and Bhandapur tea estates, who have been developing the garden, expressed contentment. “The hike will definitely reduce the workers’ woes, but most want their jobs back. We have decided to meet the district magistrate in Jalpaiguri tomorrow to press for reopening the garden,” said Phanindranath Das, an employee.

Leaders of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Workers’ Union, the trade union of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, however, are not ready to believe the government. “Unless we get something in writing, we are not ready to buy the announcement,” said Suraj Subba, the general secretary.

Tea relief for hills

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today squeezed out an assurance from Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to enhance the relief package for workers in the closed Dooars tea gardens.

The demand for Gorkhaland was not raised at the meeting — the third with the chief minister this year — in Writers’ Buildings but the Morcha did not withdraw the hunger strike at Gorubathan. “If the government gives us the assurance (to reopen the gardens) in writing, we may lift the fast,” said Raju Pradhan, assistant general secretary of the Morcha in Darjeeling.

The team also demanded the release of arrested members of the party in Siliguri, Kurseong and the Dooars where they had been arrested after incidents of violence. “We want the government to compensate us for property damaged (in the violence) and to ensure our safety,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.

Bhattacharjee repeated the situation in the Dooars was not suitable to hold rallies.

Tea workers’ plight causes concern

National Commission for Schedule Tribes (NCST) chairperson Ms Urmila Singh has expressed utter dismay at the distressed condition of the tea garden workers of the Terai region of north Bengal.

The NCST chairperson, who alighted at Bagdogra airport today leading a four-member delegation, expressed disappointment after visiting the Subal Vita tea plantation at Khoribari in Siliguri this afternoon. Subal Vita happens to be a division of the erstwhile Chandmoni tea estate, which has now been converted into an urban housing hub by the Bengal Ambuja, adjacent to Siliguri town.

“We have visited Subal Vita and feel very sorry to say that the workers there are living in utter distress in the absence of proper drinking water, housing, roads and healthcare facilities. In fact, the condition of the hospital there is so dilapidated that it is unfit even for treating animals,” Ms Singh said at a Press conference at the Siliguri Circuit House.

The distressed condition of Subal Vita has given a “gloomy” start to the NCST team’s three-day long Terai-Dooars visit, she said, adding that these issues would be raised during her meeting with the state government in Kolkata on 16 and 17 February.
Ms Singh declined to comment on the recent spate of clashes between the Adivasis and the Gorkhas over the latter’s push for Gorkhaland agitation in the Dooars. “This matter is related to the home department and is beyond our jurisdiction,” she said.
Meanwhile, the NCST members today met a delegation of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP) led by its Terai president Mr Nicodim Minz at the Siliguri Circuit House and heard their grievances against the backdrop of recent violence in the Dooars.

The Central team also held a separate discussion with a three-member delegation of the Lepcha Tribal Association from Kalimpong, the agenda of which could not be known.
In the next two days, the NCST delegation will visit places like Malbazar, Birpara, Banarhat, Nagrakata and Kachini ~ all in the Dooars ~ and will take stock of the socio-economic condition of the tea-growing populace there.

Govt move to reopen Dooars tea gardens

The Bengal government has come out with a series of measures to woo prospective entrepreneurs and existing owners to reopen the closed tea gardens in the Dooars.

Of the 158 tea gardens in the region, 12 are closed.

The measures — under the West Bengal State Support Scheme for Reopening of Closed/Abandoned Tea Gardens, 2008 — have been announced by the state commerce and industries department in a notification (No.-384-CI/O/T-Ind/010/07/PI) by its principal secretary Sabyasachi Sen on December 15.

“Whereas the Governor is of the option that it is necessary and expedient to extend certain concession/benefits/relief to the tea sector so as to enable the owners/proprietors of the closed/abandoned tea gardens to reopen them and also to protect the interests of the tea garden workers as well as the dependant members of their families and to ensure long-term sustainable viability of the tea industry in the overall industrial development of the state…,” reads the notification.

The scheme is valid for two years. A garden, registered to a tea company for not less than five years and has remained closed or was abandoned for over one year, will be considered under the scheme.

Tea industry sources said the scheme also defined the benefits and eligible criteria of entrepreneurs, both existing and new, contemplating of reopening the closed gardens.

During the recession in tea industry in the first half of the decade, a number of tea estates had closed down primarily because of shortage of working capital.

“The proposal to reopen or revive the gardens must have the support of any intending financial institution or bank in respect of working capital requirement. It should also include commitment for a substantial investment on the part of the entrepreneur,” said the notification

Chitta Dey, the convener of the Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers, the apex body of trade unions including the Citu and the Intuc, said: “It is important for the state government to judge the potential and economic background of the willing entrepreneurs.”

“There are instances that new companies and individuals, who had entered into an interim arrangement with old owners, had failed to meet the financial requirements after a few days, leaving the gardens inoperative again,” he said.

The list of benefits (see chart) include waivers on electricity duty and payment of an employment and education cess to be paid by an owner at the rate of Re 0.12 per kg of tea from the date of production.

The notification, however, said that some of the central and state schemes would be withdrawn after reopening the gardens. “This can be discouraging to some extent. For an entrepreneur who is planning to reopen a garden having a steady workforce and their dependents will always want some other income generating options,” a planter said.

Others, however, appreciate the government’s move. “It is good that the state has come out with a scheme, clarifying the benefits. We expect entrepreneurs to turn up now,” said N.K. Basu, the principal advisor to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association.

From The Telegraph

Closed tea garden issue forces cadres to join GJMM

The CPI-M is in for a jolt. Even as the party launched a campaign against the Gorkhaland cry in the district yesterday, its Samsing unit in the Dooars has revolted against the party leadership. The unit leader, Mr Rajen Lohar, along with 90 CPI-M activists has deserted the party to join the GJMM citing the CPI-M’s failure to reopen the locked out tea plantations of the Dooars.

Mr Lohar claimed today that he and 90 others went to Garubathan to meet the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha president, Mr Bimal Gurung, and joined his party. “Several years have passed since the closure of the tea plantations in the Dooars but neither the Centre nor the CPI-M led state government succeeded in opening those while the workers, who are mostly of Adivasi stock, suffer. We met the district CPI-M leaders several times on the issue but to no avail. The GJMM is fighting for our issues and so we decided to support them leaving the CPI-M,” he said.

The new entrants organised a procession from the Samsing Tea Estate to Meteli Bazaar today.

“The revolt proves that the tribal people are with us,” said the GJMM chief, Mr Bimal Gurung. “We assured them to fight for their demands and also to work for their development. Their joining us proves the tribal are withdrawing support from the CPI-M,” he added.

The CPI-M leadership is still hopeful it can stem the rot. “I have heard of the development and have sought a meeting with Mr Lohar tomorrow. I am sure the problem can be solved,” said the CPI-M Jalpaiguri district secretary Mr Manik Sanyal.

From: The Statesman

Kohinoor abandoned for third time

Kohinoor Tea Estate (Alipurduar), Dec. 21: Nearly 3,000 people of a garden are apprehensive of what the future holds for them after the management of Kohinoor Tea Estate abandoned it last week, bringing back memories of two other shut down instances during the lean season.

Kohinoor, which is 21km from Alipurduar town, withdrew its managerial staff from without any notice on the evening of December 19. Even in the evening, none of the 888 permanent workers or their dependants in the garden were aware that it had been abandoned. The realisation came late in the night.

Anil Chik Baraik, the secretary of the garden unit of the Citu-affiliated Cha Bagan Mazdoor Union, said the garden owed the workers not less than Rs 6 crore.

“Late on Friday night, a source informed us that the management staff were not coming back. We informed the Samuktala police and the subdivisional officer of Alipurduar that the estate has been abandoned. Four years ago, during an agreement the management promised us many things, none of which were fulfilled. We sacrificed 20 months wages to help the management but all in vain,” said Baraik.

Today was a date for a fortnightly payment. The workers had requested deputy manager Suman Ghosh to see if the salary could be given on the 19th so that they could shop for Christmas from the Samuktala weekly market on Friday.

“There is no reason for the management to leave because this year, too, we produced five lakh kg of made-tea. If we had been allowed to work today, 10,000 kg of green leaves would have been plucked. The management left the garden so that they did not have to pay the wages on the 22nd. On the 16th and the 19th, there were two meetings in the office of assistant labour commissioner on early salary, but nobody attended them. This is the third time the management left the garden during the lean season,” said Baraik.

In 2006, the management had deserted the garden from December 6 to January 7. A similar shutdown took place in March this year for 10 days. Prem Pandey, a worker of the garden and the member of the RSP’s UTUC, said the lean season was a time of “no production”. “The planters shut down the garden to avoid paying us for the lean season. Besides, abandoning without notice, deprives us of government aid.”

Keshab Sinha, the general manager, said over the phone that the management had wanted to deduct wages for the period when the workers demonstrated in front of the garden for three hours from December 3 to the 16th. “That is when trouble started. The workers met the deputy manager and threatened not to leave the office, if their wages were deducted. On the 16th, they burnt my effigy. We felt insecure and left the garden.”

Amitangshu Chakroborty, the secretary of the Dooars Branch of the Indian Tea Planters’ Association, said: “When they did not work for three hours for 13 continuous days, how can they demand wages? The management is ready to discuss the problem.”

Success in closed garden

Siliguri, Nov. 18: Nearly three years after the management had abandoned the closed Sikarpur and Bhandapur Tea Estate, workers find themselves financially sound and are considering running the factory on their own. The success has made them different from their counterparts in the Dooars.

After the management left the garden on January 12, 2006, the 1,550 employees of the estate located in the Rajganj block of Jalpaiguri worked hard to maintain the bushes and augment the tealeaves production which fetched them Rs 16.20 per kilogram from the bought-leaf factories.

“Each one of us agreed that the garden must be saved at any cost for the sustenance of our families,” said Phanindranath Das, a clerk of the estate. “We formed the operating and management committee (OMC) on July 17, 2006 and made every employee understand the need to work together. The overwhelming response from their side has led to today’s success.”

During this period, the workers managed to replant new tea bushes in around 20 hectares and also developed a nursery having one lakh saplings. “We have also made another 10 hectares ready for plantation and on regular basis, take care of each bush by providing manure, fertilisers and pesticides and doing pruning in the lean months. The exercise that took more than two years have started yielding results as we are producing around 10-11 lakh kg tealeaves in a year,” said Samaruddin Ali, a worker.

The workers are assigned with plucking 18kg of tealeaves subject to a minimum of 10kg for which they get Rs 50 per day. Incentives at the rate of Re 1 is paid to them for every kg of extra leaves plucked above 18kg. “Added to this is the financial assistance of Rs 750 that every worker receives from the state government every month and earnings from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme,” Ali said.

Today, the workers are financially sound and the OMC also owns a substantial sum in its account.

“Our ultimate aim will be to open the factory and run it on our own,” Jhalo Meher, another worker, said. “The OMC members had approached the district magistrate with a proposal, requesting her to arrange for funds to renovate and open the factory.”

Das said they made a project mentioning the cost of Rs 50.88 lakh and invited her to the garden.

Responding to their call, Bandana Yadav, the district magistrate, visited the garden this afternoon. “I wanted to talk to them and see the estate. It was important to judge the feasibility of the proposal,” she said.

Garden opens but doubts brew

Alipurduar, Nov. 2: The management of Mujnai Tea Estate has alleged that the workers have sold at least 30,000kg of tealeaves in four days despite an agreement on October 27 that plucking would be stopped the next day.

Although the garden in Madarihat reopened yesterday after 11months, the excitement usually seen among workers when an estate resumes operation was absent.

“The labourers apprehend that the management will once again abandon the estate. If it closes down, we will again have to wait for one year for the operations and maintenance committee (OMC) to take charge. Anyway, we will co-operate with the management,” said Ashish Biswas, a worker of the estate located 60km from here.

When a garden closes down, the government appoints OMCs which look after the estate, helping them pluck leaves and finding buyers for them. The sales proceeds are distributed among the workers.

In the past six years, the workers alleged that the management had abandoned the garden at least four times.

The owners, too, did not sound much hopeful.

N.N. Chakroborty, a senior adviser to Anjuman Tea Company Limited that owns Mujnai, said: “We expected to get a yield of at least 1 lakh kg of green leaves, but we are left with around 30,000kg only.”

“The trade union leaders had assured us at a meeting on October 27 that plucking would be stopped the next day. But that did not happen. Instead 10,000kg of leaves were taken away in a single day. One can imagine the amount for four days. The buyers of these leaves do not want the gardens to open and so the problems of closed estates never get solved,” said Chakroborty, who fears a crisis in the cropping season as well.

“Shade trees in more than 400 acres have been chopped. Some workers have even occupied the residences of assistant managers and staff,” he said.

The adviser to the company said during the period when the garden was closed, the workers sold tealeaves at Rs 7 per kg, while the market rate was not less than Rs 14.

The garden had been closed from April 2002 to October 2004 and from November 2005 to January 2006.

It again stopped operations in May 2007 for a month. It shut down again in November 2007 and reopened yesterday.

The estate has a workforce of 999. The company owes them Rs 1.50 crore in PF, Rs 30 lakh in gratuity and Rs 36 lakh in bonus. The wages of four weeks and ration of 11 months are also pending. The wages for October 2007 were given yesterday.

The factory was swept clean and so was the hospital, but there was nobody to decorate the offices, a practice among workers when a garden reopens. Nor was the management welcomed with flowers, another prevalent practice.

Chamurchi may reopen soon

Siliguri, Oct. 29: Seven years after it was shut down, Chamurchi Tea Estate near Banarhat in the Dooars is showing signs of reopening.

Another closed garden in the region, Mujnai Tea Estate, will reopen on November 1.

“Om Prakash Mal, a known face in the jute industry of the state, had agreed to take over Chamurchi from the old owner last year,” N.K. Basu, the principal adviser to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association (ITPA), said today. “Finally, he has decided to reopen the garden and has arranged a meeting on November 6 in Calcutta.”

Trade union leaders, representatives from the ITPA and other stakeholders of the tea industry will be present at the meeting to be held at the additional state labour commissioner’s office.

“The date of reopening will be fixed after discussing the payment of liabilities like the workers’ dues, the status of factory and the plantations,” Basu said.

But before the meeting, the trade union leaders and the planters will sit in Calcutta on November 4 and 5 to discuss the revision of salaries of the workers in the estates, a union leader said.

During the past seven years, the workers and their families in the garden solely depended on the proceeds of tealeaves which they usually sell to nearby estates and to some bought-leaf factories.

“We could not see any hope as the owner did not respond to our repeated requests and reminders from the government,” Raso Mahali, one of the 846 workers in the garden, said referring to Sushila Kejriwal, the director of Chamurchi Agro (India) Ltd, the previous owner of the garden. “It is nice to hear now that a new owner is interested in reopening the garden. We are eagerly waiting to see the factory start again.”

Closed tea estate gets back to work

Bharnobari Tea Estate (Alipurduar), April 27: Workers of this Dooars tea garden had a busy Sunday as they cleaned and painted the factory to get it ready for tomorrow, when the garden reopens after nearly two-and-a-half years.

They also gave the display board outside the garden a fresh coat of paint. The notice board in the office announced that the garden would reopen on May 28.

Three new financiers have taken over the garden that has been closed since December 30, 2005. Two of them — Surojit Basu and Ashoke Chawla — visited Bharnobari today. The third financier is Kingshuk Sinha.

“We are yet to get the ownership documents because of some legal wrangle, but the garden will be transferred in our name soon,” said Basu, who, along with the other two, runs two gardens in north Bengal and Assam.

“We are happy to see that the machines in Bharnobari are ready. Not a single thing has been stolen from the factory though the workers have gone through very difficult times,” said Basu.

A source said the main problem was that the garden’s electricity lines had been disconnected a long time ago. “They will have to use a generator to begin manufacturing tea and that is going to be very costly,” the source added.

Basu, however, said the electricity connection would be restored within three weeks. The financier added that initially they would invest Rs 12 crore over two years. “We will spend Rs 8 crore to clear 60 per cent of the dues of the workers and another Rs 4 crore to run the garden,” Basu said. “We also plan to plant new tea bushes in the 30 acres of the plantation that are lying unused.”

The workers, on their part, said they would not claim their dues until 2009. “For one year, we will not claim any dues because it will be better to invest the money in the garden. The important point is that the new owners run two other gardens and they know the ins and outs of the business,” Babulal Harizon, a worker, said.

Even if the dues are held back for a year, the workers will be paid their wages. “Each of them will also receive Rs 750 a month from the Bengal government as financial assistance to workers of locked out industries,” said Madan Sarki, the convener of the operations and management committee of Bharnobari.

Fate of closed tea gardens to be decided

Jan. 29: Officials of the Jalpaiguri district administration and Bengal government will meet in the third week of February to decide on the fate of the closed tea gardens of Kanthalguri and Ramjhora and their 8,000-odd impoverished residents.

The meting was fixed after the district administration received seven applications from entrepreneurs and companies expressing interest in acquiring the gardens, which have been shut for six years.

“We had advertised in newspapers and had sought bids from interested parties,” said Jalpaiguri district magistrate R. Ranjit. “This was followed by submission of applications, some of which contain joint proposals for both gardens. We plan to meet next month, open the bids and decide on them.”

Ranjit said there were “five proposals for Kanthalguri and two for Ramjhora”. The extended deadline for submitting bids was January 15.

In the past six years, the state government had made repeated attempts to reopen the estates but failed before cancelling the leases.

Finally, upon the insistence of Union minister of state of commerce and industry, Jairam Ramesh, it was decided that the state government would take the responsibility of finding new owners for Ramjhora and Kanthalguri while the Centre would take care of the remaining 11 closed gardens in the Dooars.

B.L. Meena, the divisional commissioner of Jalpaiguri, said senior officials from the state land and land reforms department would attend the meeting in February since “the leases of both the gardens stand cancelled”.

“We will evaluate the bids and finalise the companies or persons to whom the gardens can be handed over,” Meena added.

The district magistrate said: “We are yet to fix the modalities of the meeting. But there is a possibility that those who have bid for the gardens or their representatives will be called for an interview before any decision is taken.”

Power restored

Power supply to Dalsinghpara Tea Estate has resumed, reports our Jaigaon correspondent. The supply was disconnected on January 3 following non-payment of bills. Today, the management cleared one-third of the dues.

Source: The Telegraph

Puja grant for closed tea garden workers

The Bengal government today declared a festival grant of Rs 750 each to workers of closed industries in the state.

The grant is expected to bring relief to the labourers of 13 closed tea estates in the Dooars and two in the Darjeeling hills.

“The state finance ministry has given the approval today. We now have to ensure that workers in closed gardens and other closed industries receive the grant before Diwali,” Bengal urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said at a news conference here this evening.

So far, the state government had been paying Rs 750 per month to the jobless workers of the closed tea gardens under the Financial Assistance to Workers of Locked Out Industries scheme.

“We demand that the Centre should pay Rs 750 per month out of its own funds to boost our grant,” Bhattacharya said. “This would take the monthly allowance to Rs 1,500, thus bringing some relief to the workers.”

Source: The Telegraph

Bonus for closed tea garden workers

Workers of closed gardens, too, will get “bonus” this year, the operations and maintenance committees (OMCs) have promised.

However, they have refused to call it bonus. It will be known as kharcha or bakshish.

“This is because we are distributing a portion of the OMC income among the workers,” said Sova Chhetry, the convener of the OMC at Kalchini Tea Estate, 33km from here.

The OMCs were set up in gardens that faced lockout or were abandoned by the management. The workers run them with help from trade unions. The leaves produced are sold either to other gardens that have factories or to bought leaf factories

In Kalchini block, four gardens — Kalchini, Raimatang, Chinchula and Bharnobari — are lying closed for not less than two years. Kalchini workers will get their kharcha tomorrow.

“Last year, because of a shortage in funds we could not give anything to the workers. This time, the labourers have worked from March 12 to September 28. The number of working days comes to around 113. A worker who has worked for all the days will receive more than Rs 700. There are 1,273 workers in Kalchini Main division while in Kalchini Out Division there are 730 workers, who will receive more than Rs 750,” said Chhetry.

In Raimatang Tea Estate, the number of workers is 1,258 and all of them will get Rs 800 each as bakshish. For Chinchula, the situation is different.

Gopal Goyel a buyer of tealeaves from the Out Division, has taken the charge of 500 workers. All of them will get Rs 1,500 each on the basis of last year’s performance.

Bharnobari Tea Estate, under Hasimara police station, however, will not distribute bakshish. Maximum starvation and malnutrition deaths (the figure is around 90 from December 2005 till date) were reported from this garden.

Madan Sarki, the convener of the garden OMC, said: “We have lots of expenses. We have purchased chemicals for tea bushes and have to pay the electric bill. So we decided against baksheesh. The workers too have agreed.”

Sarki also said that the VIP visits to the garden have done nothing to improve it condition.

“So many of them came, but the status remains the same,” he said.

Source: The Telegraph

Estate acquisition by government if owner doesn't respond

The tea board has told the owners of closed gardens to explain within October 16 why the Centre should not take over their estates by invoking Section 16 (E) of the Tea Act of 1953.

The owners have already missed two earlier deadlines (in August and September), though this is the first time that they have been showcaused.

“We are not sitting idle,” Union minister of state for commerce and industry Jairam Ramesh told The Telegraph yesterday. “Showcause notices have been served to them (the owners) on October 5 and if they do not respond within the specified date (October 16), we will go ahead with the acquisition.”

Section 16 (E) allows the Centre to take over the management of a tea estate and give it to another entrepreneur without any inquiry if the garden remains closed for three months or more.

The minister, who was on a two-day tour of north Bengal, added that the showcause notices ask for specific information from the owners. “Like what liabilities they have, how they plan to settle their provident fund dues, the discussions they have had with the trade unions, whether they have found new investors and when they can reopen their gardens,” Ramesh explained.

From bankers, the tea board has asked for an assessment of the capacities of the existing owners, viability of the gardens, possibility of financial restructuring and details of liabilities.

“We cannot say that the gardens will open before the Pujas but there will certainly be a major change in the next one month,” Ramesh said.

Fox Mandal, a Calcutta-based law firm, has been also asked to draft an advertisement seeking expression of interest from entrepreneurs willing to take over acquired tea estates. “Some prerequisites will also be mentioned in the advertisement to be released in various newspapers,” Ramesh said.

The minister added that the board has received at least five proposals from new entrepreneurs, including some “big tea companies” and “local businessmen”.

For the 18,000-odd workers of the 13 closed gardens in north Bengal, Ramesh announced a festival grant of Rs 1,500-Rs 2,000 per family. “The money will definitely be disbursed before Diwali.”

Source: The Telegraph