Trinamul Congress sets deadline for closed tea gardens

Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today threatened to launch a movement in the tea belt of north Bengal if the Center and state fail to open the closed estates within the next one month.

She said this at a convention of workers from closed tea gardens organized by the Trinamul-affiliated Terai Dooars Tea Plantation Workers’ Union. The tea trade union was formed by the party recently to augment its support base in the brew belt.

“We have heard a lot about packages and initiatives. Now we want to make it clear that in case both the state and Center fail to reopen the closed gardens, we will simultaneously organize rallies in the streets of Calcutta and Delhi with the starving residents,” Mamata said. “We have formed our trade union in the tea industry and hope that now the governments will stop being sluggish and not force us to launch a movement.”

The meet, organized at the Colony Maidan here, was attended by close to 20,000 people, mostly from the tea gardens.

“Given the plight of tea workers, who are dying everyday, we want the state and Center to form a committee to monitor the implementation of the special package in the closed and sick tea gardens. This will stop the siphoning of money,” Mamata said.

A number of garden-level trade union leaders from estates like New Dooars, Raipur, Sikarpur and Bhandapur, Neora Nuddy and Anandapur, owing allegiance to the Citu, Intuc and the HMS, formally joined the Trinamul trade union today.

“We smell a rat in the lackadaisical attitude of the state government in reopening the gardens. They are trying to convert tea gardens into real estate as they have done at Chandmoni near Siliguri,” she alleged. “The recent decision by Tata Tea to resort to disinvestment in the tea sector is a clear indication.”

In her speech, Mamata highlighted the development of railway services in north Bengal during her stint as minister and trained guns at the CPM for its failure to check starvation deaths.

Estate reopens

The 11-day strike called by the Citu-affiliated Cha Bagan Majdoor Union at Bhagatpur Tea Garden in Nagrakata block was called off today following a tripartite meeting, reports our Jaigaon correspondent.

Source: The Telegraph

Mamta in for the tea industry

The Trinamul Congress has decided to gain a toehold in the tea industry by taking up the distressed workers’ cause. And so, it would take the movement of the tea workers to the streets of Delhi.

According to the party’s Darjeeling district president Mr Gautam Deb today, the Trinamul Congress would be staging a hunger rally in Delhi with workers of closed and abandoned tea estates some time after the pujas to highlight the plight of the workers and their dependents.
He added that to keep the momentum of the movement on Miss Mamata Banerjee would visit the Dooars of north Bengal from 30 August to 1 September.

On 30 August she would address a mass meeting at the Mal Colony Maidan. On 31 August she would visit the closed Bharnobari and Kathalguri tea estates in the Dooars.

On 1 September she would attend a mass meeting at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar district to involve more people in the movement to save the tea plantations and its workers. The Trinamul has made arrangements to make Miss Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the Dooars a success.

Source: The Telegraph

Mamta has to act fast to gain tea workers confidence

Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the Dooars has not gone unnoticed, but neither has it been able to trigger any enthusiasm.

A day after her tour of two closed estates, tea workers feel that the Trinamul Congress chief has to deliver first, in the manner of some major breakthroughs, to win their confidence.

“We have become accustomed to false promises from leaders. Unless her party succeeds in establishing an efficient platform that would work towards reopening the gardens, it will be tough for it to garner support here,” said Phanindranath Das, a worker of Sikarpur-Bhandapur, 30 km from here. Mamata had visited the garden yesterday.

He added that in no way would workers of his garden follow the lines of Singur and Nandigram. The reference was to Mamata’s announcement that her party would launch a movement similar to the ones in south Bengal against land acquisition.

Das agreed with Sania Bhumij, a worker and unit secretary of the Citu-affiliated Cha Bagan Mazdoor Union of Raipur, that actor turned Trinamul MLA Tapas Pal had been the real crowd puller.

“It is true that hundreds of residents, especially women, had rushed to the dais. But their intention was to see Tapas Pal. He is well-known here,” said Bhumij, one of those who had elaborated their problems before Mamata yesterday. Bhumij, however, said she and many other workers would not mind joining any movement that might benefit them. “In case a central agitation is organised and it is useful to us, we would definitely participate,” she said.

Others like Biplab Sarkar of Bharnobari, which is likely to open on June 29, said the Trinamul leader’s visit has been a “little too late”.

“She has taken up the issue five years after the crisis started, at a time when the Centre and state are seriously working to end the impasse,” said Sarkar.

He said another factor that would make the party’s task harder was the absence of any Trinamul trade union in the tea belt. Trinamul leaders of the region admitted that they had a number of hurdles ahead.

“It is true that we need to take up concrete activities in the closed gardens to bring people under the banner of the Save Tea Garden Committee,” said Gautam Deb, the Darjeeling district president of the party. Deb has been made chairman of a 15-member core group that will give regular reports to Mamata on the tea gardens.

“We will meet in Cooch Behar on June 24 to chalk out our strategy,” he added.

Source: The Telegraph