Tea workers change tea gardens

Over 100 permanent workers of Redbank Tea Estate in Banarhat, Jalpaiguri, have joined the adjacent garden of Surendranagar as casual labourers, sparking a row between Citu and Intuc-affiliated unions.

The workers come from Salboni, a division of the Redbank tea estate with 150 hectares of plantation. This morning, an altercation broke out between the two unions when members of the Citu-affiliated operations and maintenance committee (OMC) of Redbank went to the Salboni division to dissuade the labourers from going over to Surendranagar.

“When we went there, a few toughs, whom we suspect to be accomplices of the owner of Surendranagar, threatened us,” said Debabrata Pal, a member of the OMC. “We protested but turned back to avoid any law and order problem. We consider this to be a plot by the owner to create a rift among Redbank workers.”

Both the gardens are owned by Rabin Paul. But while Paul has regained control of Surendranagar after almost four years, Redbank is still run by an OMC. Redbank has gone into liquidation from March 28 this year and the OMC members put the blame for the situation on the “irresponsible attitude” of Paul towards the garden.

Leaders of the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW), which enjoys the support of the workers of Surendranagar, said labourers are increasingly preferring them over the Citu. “Of the 113 permanent workers of Salboni, more than 100 are with us now,” said Pradip Mullick of NUPW. “Instead of plucking tealeaves and handing them over to the Citu-dominated OMC at Redbank, they prefer to work as casual workers at Surendranagar.”

In total, there are over 800 workers at Redbank.

The NUPW leader also claimed that it was Citu supporters who had tried to create trouble this morning. “But the workers thwarted their ploy,” Mullick said.

The workers in question said they had switched gardens on their own. “We used to get around Rs 15 to Rs 20 per day from the OMC for plucking tealeaves at Salboni, but at Surendranagar we are earning Rs 53.90 every day even as casual labourers,” said one of those who have crossed over.

Source: The Telegraph

More Tea garden deaths

Five persons have died of malnutrition and related diseases in the past 10 days in the Mujnai tea estate, 50 km from here.

Malati Munda, 58, who died this morning, was suffering from anaemia.

“For the past one week, she was running a high temperature. I told her to go to the Madarihat block hospital. She came to me this morning, too, but was very weak. She died after she returned home,” said Ashish Biswas, the health assistant of the garden hospital. Biswas is in charge of the hospital, which has been without a doctor since 2004. Mujnai is located in the Madarihat block of Jalpaiguri.

Mujnai was declared a locked out estate on Tuesday. While the management blamed interference from outsiders for its decision, workers alleged that they are yet to get around two months of wages and four-and-a-half months’ ration. Retired workers like Malati had not got their provident funds and other dues.

A tripartite meeting was supposed to be held at the office of the deputy labour commissioner of Jalpaiguri today, but it has been deferred to Monday.

Malati, however, is not the only one, her neighbours alleged, to have died of malnutrition. Budhni Malahi, Jhalo Naik, Etwari Oraon and Ghashi Bandhan went without a square meal, sometimes for as long as 20 days, before they died. Biswas, however, denied that the deaths were from starvation “I knew them all and had attended to them at some time or the other. The deaths were from malnutrition and absence of proper medical facilities,” said Biswas.

The secretary of the Birpara branch of the Intuc, Nakul Sonat, alleged that despite the management’s promise that the essential services in the garden would be in place during lockout, the water supply has been cut off.

Chief adviser to the tea garden N.N. Chakraborty admitted that essential services had been promised to workers.

“I am not sure why they are not getting them. I will definitely look into the matter,” Chakraborty said. Earlier, the garden had remained shut from January 1, 2002 to October 10, 2004.

Both the block development officer of Madarihat, T. Lama, as well as the Jalpaiguri chief medical officer of health, Bhusan Chakraborty admitted that they were unaware of the garden’s closure.

Source: The Telegraph