Plea to CM to reopen 8 gardens

TT, Nov. 11: The CPM sabhadhipati of Jalpaiguri zilla parishad today wrote to the chief minister seeking her intervention to reopen eight closed tea gardens in the district and warned of a movement if the state government didn’t take necessary steps to end the plight of workers.

Twelve people have died in three closed tea gardens of the Red Bank group since October and in Raipur Tea Estate, near the Jalpaiguri town, five persons — among them three children — have died since the garden was abandoned by the management on October 10.

Sabhadhipati Noorjahan Begum visited the Raipur plantation on Saturday.

“I have seen the deplorable condition of the workers and their families. The management has abandoned the garden without paying the labourers their wages and rations. After the closure of the estate, they are finding it difficult to arrange two square meals a day. We are making our best effort to ensure that welfare schemes are implemented and food and health care are provided to the workers,” she said in Jalpaiguri today.

Noorjahan said she had requested chief minister Mamata Banerjee to take steps to reopen the closed gardens.

“We feel the government has an important role to play in reopening the gardens. I sent a letter to the chief minister today requesting her to take steps…. We will wait for some days and in case no step is taken by the state, we will join hands with them to launch a movement against the government.”

In her letter to the chief minister, Noorjahan said the eight closed gardens employed 4,000 people.

Dheklapara, Nidam, Bandapani and Dalsinghpara are the other colsed estates besides the three Red Bank gardens and Raipur tea estate.

A worker of Raipur said five persons had died in the garden after the closure.

“Three children aged two-three years have died because of malnutrition and weakness after the garden was abandoned by the management on October 10. A 16-year-old girl and a 60-year-old woman also died after they fell ill because of lack of food and treatment,” said the worker.

Raipur has 700 workers who have been eking out a living by doing odd jobs after the garden’s closure.

“Representatives of the management left the estate without issuing any notice. The workers didn’t receive the bonus ahead of Durga Puja and their ration and wages had been due for one-and-a-half months. Many workers and their family members have left the garden in search of work,” said Pradhan Hembram, a member of Patkata panchayat.