Hailstorm runs havoc in estates

A hailstorm accompanied by rain flattened tea bushes and damaged property in four tea gardens of the Alipurduar subdivision last night.

The calamity hit the Tasati, Mujnai Subhasini and Ethelbari tea estates around 10.15pm and left a trail of devastation in just 15 minutes.

The worst-hit was the Tasati tea estate where the bushes were completely shaved off and the management feared that production would not be possible before June.

“Of the 400 hectares, bushes in about 120 hectares have been very badly damaged. The loss, according to our preliminary estimates, will be around Rs 50-60 lakh. The roofs of about 80 houses of our workers had been blown off,” said Tasati manager V.K. Goyel.

Chemicals were being sprayed on the damaged bushes to prevent them from pest attacks and diseases.

An estimated Rs 20 lakh would be required to repair the damaged houses, Goyel said and added a similar hailstorm had destroyed the property in April 2005.

“The hailstones were at least an inch in diameter and inflicted heavy damage on the bushes. We will be hard put to compensate for the loss,” the Tasati manager said.

In Mujnai, a portion of the factory shed was destroyed in the storm. The management had just repaired the shed after it was damaged last year. “We had planned to reopen the factory from today, but last night’s storm damaged the wall as well as the factory shed. We will have to carry out repair work again and need at least Rs 5 lakh which will be hard on us at a time of financial crisis,” said N.N. Chakrabarty, a senior manager of the garden.

At the Subhasini tea garden, at least 100 feet of the factory wall collapsed. The management said it would have to erect a fencing after removing the rubble.

Debarghya Guha, the manager of Ethelbari Tea Estate in Falakata, said 1.59 lakh kg of green leaves worth Rs 2.8 crore were destroyed in the hailstorm last night.

Mujnai Tea Estate co-ordination committee to interact with management

Alipurduar, Feb. 4: Workers of Mujnai Tea Estate have decided to form a co-ordination committee in the garden to interact with the management.

The decision was taken yesterday, keeping in mind the frequent altercations that have been hindering the smooth running of the garden. There have been at least three altercations between the workers and the management since November 1, when the estate opened after 11 months of shutdown.

“At least five persons from every registered trade union would be members of the committee. In case of any dispute, the committee will talk to the manager. It will be formed next week, but on Friday when the garden starts functioning, we will tell the workers to maintain discipline and behave well with the managers,” said Sukha Oraon, the secretary of the garden unit of the Citu-run Cha Bagan Mazdoor Union.

On January 13, a section of workers without wages for a month had forced N.N. Chakroborty, a senior adviser to Mujnai Tea Company, to leave the garden on foot. They forced 70-year-old Chakroborty to walk 5km and then board a bus from Rangalibazna.

Oraon said the January 13 incident had saddened his union. “But at the same time it is also true that the workers had been told that they would get their wages and ration in due time at a tripartite meeting in Calcutta in October. But they did not get the wages for December and it was almost mid-January. This agitated a section of workers and they protested. Unfortunately, none of the union leaders was present at that time.”

The garden will reopen on Friday and the next day, the wages for December would be distributed. “The management has to clear lot of dues. But our only demand is that the workers be given their wages and ration on time. Otherwise, how will the workers lead a normal life,” said Oraon.

Chakroborty said over the phone that only a small portion of workers was creating problems in the garden. “The majority of them are fine. Several of them, especially women, had urged me to open the garden. That is why I attended the meeting at the district magistrate’s office where the deputy labour commissioner was also present. The leaders said in the meeting they were sorry for the incident.”

The manager said running the garden smoothly would be a challenge. “On January 13, I told them to wait for a day for the wage but they refused and forced me to leave the garden.”

From The Telegraph

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.

Talwar tips for Mujnai Tea Estate

Alipurduar, Jan. 28: Workers of the abandoned Mujnai Tea Estate will focus on off-season maintenance of bushes from tomorrow to get fresh leaves in the coming season. The work includes pruning and weeding and digging new drains.

The decision was taken at a meeting called by Bagan Bachao Committee, a body formed by the workers of Mujnai, after a discussion with Anuradha Talwar, the president of the Pashchim Banga Khet Majur Committee.

The management of Mujnai had abandoned the garden on November 22, leaving 962 workers in the lurch. Despite several meetings the impasse could not be solved. The workers have not received their wages for the last three months and ration for 22 fortnights.

The absence of the management also affected maintenance of the bushes.

“If the maintenance work does not start now, the workers will not get fresh leaves in the next season, which begins around mid-March. On the other hand, if the bushes yield good leaves, the workers can earn money by selling them,” Talwar told The Telegraph over telephone from Mujnai, 65km from here.

Talwar said she had advised the workers to place four demands to the administration.

Every meeting between the administration and the owner must be organised in the garden, so that the workers get to know the decision and are not “misguided” by trade union leaders.

When the management does come back to run the garden, it must openly declare the steps it will take for the development of the garden.

If the workers invest their money earned from selling leaves in the garden, as it happens in Shikarpur, the management has to pay the amount back to them.

Finally, the workers should submit a memorandum to the assistant labour commissioner, demanding that the garden be declared closed until the management returns so that they could get government relief.

Ashish Biswas, the convener of the Bagan Bachao Committee, said the workers would start maintenance from tomorrow. They would place the demands to the administration by the end of this week.

“We cannot prune tea bushes under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which safeguards 100 days of work. If that was made possible, we would have benefited a lot,” Biswas said.