Tea garden closed

TT, Alipurduar, Feb. 8: The management of Kalchini Tea Estate suspended work from today, alleging lawlessness by a section of workers who prevented erection of fences around the plantation.

The garden had been closed from December 14 to 22 last year also.

Today, N.K. Basu, an official of the Buxa Dooars Tea Company (India) Limited that owns the garden, said: "We closed the garden because of high-handedness of some workers. When the managerial staff were erecting fences around the garden, the workers stopped them. The assistant manager was heckled and the manager was threatened."

Bablu Majumdar, the assistant general secretary of Trinamul Union of Plantation Workers, said the material used for fencing was too sharp and could cause injury to them and that was why the labourers had put up resistance.

Kalchini has 2,002 permanent and around 400 temporary workers.

It has plantations spread over 600 hectare, sources said.