Duncans charged for cutting down tea wages

Jaigaon: The Congress-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) has alleged that provident fund deductions from the wages of workers have been reduced in 14 tea gardens owned by Duncans across the Dooars, Terai and the hills.

“During the months of May and June the company has deducted 10 per cent of the workers’ wages as provident fund instead of the regulation 12 per cent. This means they will get far less than their statutory dues at the time of retirement. I have faxed a complaint to the central and regional provident fund commissioners in Delhi and Jalpaiguri respectively about the discrepancy,” said Pravat Mukherjee, the general secretary of the NUPW.

A worker of the Duncans’ Killott tea garden, Suraj Thapa, said if a person works for 26 days a month his wages, including the food concession, comes to around Rs 1,472.

“If 12 per cent is deducted, the employee’s share comes to Rs 177 and with a matching contribution from the employer is supposed to deposit Rs 354 to the provident fund account each month. However, at 10 per cent, the total amount comes to Rs 294, which is Rs 60 less than the actual amount,” Thapa said. Observers feel the cumulative difference for the 30,000 workers of Duncans would amount to Rs 18 lakh per month.

N.C. Poddar, the regional provident fund commissioner-II, told The Telegraph at his office in Jalpaiguri that the discrepancy had already come to his notice and he had informed the central provident fund commissioner’s office in Delhi about the development a fortnight ago. He also confirmed that Mukherjee had met him with workers from the Bagrakote garden of Duncans last Monday with a complaint on the issue.

“I have forwarded the complaint to our Delhi office,” Poddar said.

The secretary of the Dooars Branch Indian Tea Association, Prabir Bhattacharjee, said it was statutory for all tea companies to deduct 12 per cent from the workers’ wages. “There has been no amendment of the laws lowering the percentage,” Bhattacharjee said.

An executive of Duncans, K.K. Mehra, when contacted on his mobile phone said he had nothing to say on the issue. “You can contact the regional provident fund commissioner in Jalpaiguri,” Mehra said.

Source: The Telegraph

Death, disease and now human trafficking

The spectre of human trafficking looms over the Dooars tea gardens along with death and disease.

Acting on a tip-off last night, police rescued a group of 10 boys and two men from Dhupguri station. The boys, who hail from three different gardens in central Dooars, were being taken to Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, to work as farm hands. A middle-aged man accompanying the group was arrested.

“Based on prior information, our men were posted at the station last night. The boys were waiting for the Delhi-bound Awadh-Assam Express when they were spotted. Their movements were suspicious and when the man accompanying them could not explain what he was doing there, the entire group was brought to the police station,” said Tapas Das, the additional superintendent of police, Jalpaiguri. “During interrogation the boys insisted that their parents had permitted them to go and work at the farmhouse as shepherds.”

The arrested person, identified as Devendra Singh, claimed to be the owner of the farmhouse. “He said the parents of the boys had consented to their going with him. He also claimed to have paid advance wages to some of the guardians,” a police officer said. The cops, however, are likely to file a kidnapping case against him.

Among the rescued, Anil Oraon (14), Lovo Munda (15), Surajit Oraon (15) and Akash Oraon (14) are from Kanthalguri Tea Estate, Otua Oraon (15), Hariram Oraon (16), Budhua Kheria (17), Prakash Oraon (25), Suresham Munda (15) and Ordhar Oraon (35) from Rheabari Tea Estate, while Barful Munda (15) and Manoj Munda (18) are from Banarhat Tea Estate. Of the three gardens, Kanthalguri is closed since July 2002, while the other two are open.

Though Singh claimed he had paid money, some of the parents denied any such deal. Chera Oraon, father of Anil and a resident of Kanthalguri, said: “Since our garden is closed, we went out yesterday morning to look for work outside the garden. When we returned in the evening our sons were nowhere to be seen. We looked for them throughout the night and were going to lodge a complaint this morning when some policemen came and informed us that our children had been rescued from Dhupguri.”

According to a survey done by Dooars Jagaran, an NGO working on trafficking in the area, the trend has become more pronounced in the last few years (see chart). “At least 47 people, including women, are missing from Kanthalguri alone,” said Victor Basu, a member of the organisation.

“People are trafficked mainly to Delhi and Sikkim. While some of them land household jobs, most of them go untraced.”

Source: The Telegraph

Mixed Reaction over opening of closed tea gardens

The announcement that five of the 14 closed gardens in the Dooars will resume operations by July has evoked mixed reactions in the tea industry.

While some stakeholders have adopted a wait-and-watch policy, others are appreciating the role of Jairam Ramesh, the Union minister of state for commerce and industry, who made the announcement in Calcutta on Thursday.

Rabin Paul, the chairman-director of Surendranagar Tea Estate at Banarhat, 120 km from here, falls in the second category. Paul, who will be the first in the Dooars to reopen a closed garden, will take charge of his estate in the presence of Ramesh on May 17.

After being thwarted by Citu supporters last week from entering the garden, Paul is now waiting for D-Day.

“I had the opportunity to brief the minister who appeared to be an attentive listener,” Paul said today. “He immediately instructed the district magistrate (of Jalpaiguri) to make necessary arrangements and said he would be at the garden gates on the specified date. This is indeed an exemplary act, which would encourage other planters as well.”

Surendragar has been the focus of attention for quite sometime. Last week, Citu supporters from neighbouring Redbank Estate prevented Paul from entering Surendranagar, which has a majority of Intuc supporters. Redbank, too, is owned by Paul. The district administration, which failed to provide any escort to Paul despite a high court order, has now set up police camps at the garden.

“The minister expressed surprise when I pointed out the highhandedness of a trade union. He insisted that Citu leaders, too, should be present at the reopening programme. We have already instructed workers to arrange a befitting welcome for the minister,” he said.

Some trade union leaders are as optimistic as Paul. “We appreciate the way Ramesh addressed the issue,” said Aloke Chakravorty, the joint general secretary of the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers. “He adopted the strategy of inviting stakeholders and discussing each closed garden. We don’t understand why the state government could not convene such meetings and waited for the Centre’s intervention instead. Such inaction is bound to raise doubts about the sincerity of the state to reopen the estates,” the trade union leader said.

However, labour leaders like Chitta Dey, the convener of the Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers — an umbrella organisation of trade unions — reacted differently. “It is definitely good news, but unless all the gardens re-open and run for a few months, we cannot relax,” Dey said. “Several issues, including workers’ dues, are still pending and have to be sorted out.”

Dey also said nothing good has come out of meetings at Kanthalguri, Ramjhora and Dekhlapara gardens, the leases of which have been cancelled. “The state could not present any buyer,” he said. “The deadlock still persists as nothing specific has been decided.”

Representatives from planters’ community have sought more help from the Centre. “Along with the closed gardens, there are some sick estates too. The Centre should extend some relief to these gardens as well,” said N.K. Basu, the convener of the state committee of Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations.

Source: The Telegraph

NALSA's special plans for Dooars' Tea Gardens

The National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa) has chalked out special plans for tea gardens of the Dooars, 13 of which are either closed or have been abandoned.

Other than helping to provide food, security and protection of fundamental rights, the objective of Nalsa under its newly introduced “Save the Garden, Save Workers” campaign is to rescue and rehabilitate sick and ailing workers and their families.

Under the project, a helpline (9933946884), a relief collection and distribution centre, a legal aid and advice cell, a hospice and geriatric care centre, ambulances and other services have been introduced. The centres will operate from the premises of Matrisangha Janakalyan Ashram here, a welfare organisation headquartered in Calcutta.

The implementing partners include NGOs, community-based and voluntary organisations, trade unions and district and subdivisional legal service authorities.

Nalsa was constituted on December 5, 1995 (though it effectively started working five years later) as an outcome of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. The act had been introduced to give a statutory base to legal aid programmes throughout the country in a uniform manner.

A five-member Nalsa delegation, led by its adviser and head of national programme implementation Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury, was here to launch the initiative yesterday. M.K. Sharma, the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, and Justice Indira Banerjee of Calcutta High Court were some of the others who were present.

Mitra Chaudhury said a Lok Adalat would be held after the registration of every 300 complaints for the settlement of disputes. If conciliatory efforts do not work out, cases will be initiated and the ruling of the judges of the Lok Adalat would be “as binding as any other court”.

A discussion on the state of the tea gardens was held today. It was attended by the divisional commissioner, Jalpaiguri, the district magistrates, sabhadhipatis, social welfare officers and the BDOs of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar. Trade union and NGO representatives as well as some garden workers were among the 350 participants.

“The DMs presented the work their administrations had done in the gardens, which was challenged to an extent by some trade union leaders. Some NGOs complained of lack of security in the gardens. We have collected all versions and will take up follow-up measures,” Mitra Chaudhury said.

Administration and trade union sources are, however, sceptical about how effective the initiative will be. “The Lok Adalats may help in minor cases like theft or land disputes. However, they may not be a solution for industrial and labour disputes,” said Chitta Dey, a trade union leader .

Source: The Telegraph

Alternative farming on closed tea estates

Alternative farming on the vacant land of closed estates in the Dooars may improve their condition, feels the Jalpaiguri district administration.

At a review meeting held at the district collectorate today to assess the progress of work in closed tea gardens, the officials decided to compile a list of non-workers at the estate and distribute Antodaya Annapurna Yojana cards among garden residents.

“The public health engineering department has been directed to install tubewells in every closed garden by March 31,” said B.L. Meena, the divisional commissioner of Jalpaiguri, after the meeting. “We are sure to cover up to 80 per cent of the target of the 100-day work scheme by the end of the financial year. In some places, it may even be 100 per cent.”

In New Delhi, a five-member team of United Forum of Small Tea Growers’ Associations, today met Jairam Ramesh (in picture), the Union minister of state for commerce and industries, and Basudeb Banerjee, the chairman of Tea Board of India.

“Both the chairman and the minister promised us that they would look into and decide on issues like fixing quality parameters, introducing prototype small-scale bought-leaf factories and forming the small growers’ development authority at the national level,” said Bijoygopal Chakrobarty, the convener of the association, over phone from Delhi.

Source: The Telegraph