Closed estate land with state - Bundapani lease expires, garden with government

Bundapani tea estate. File picture

TT, Alipurduar Oct. 16: The state government has taken possession of the land of the closed Bundapani tea estate, the lease for which has expired.

This is the first time after the change of government in Bengal that the state has taken over the land of a closed garden.

R. Alice Vaz, the Alipurduar district magistrate, said: “The lease of the closed Bundapani Tea Estate has expired and we are taking over the charge of the land of the garden. Then government will decide what to do on the land.”

North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb, when asked about the state’s plan about the tea estate, suggested that the government would either run it on its own or find a new owner.

Rakesh Srivastav, the Siliguri-based owner of the garden, has been incommunicado since he was accused in a funds mobilising scam in Jharkhand.

Deb said: “It has not yet been decided whether the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation (WBTDC) will run Bundapani tea estate or it would be handed over to new owners.”

Asked what would happen to the over 1,200 workers, many of whom were breaking rocks to make a living since the garden’s closure in July, the minister said their jobs would be safeguarded.

“At the moment, these workers are jobless,” Deb said.

“If the WBTDC decides to run the tea garden then these workers would get paid. Also, in case we decide to hand over the garden to new private owners we will make it mandatory that they absorb all workers to ensure that they do not remain unemployed.”

On July 23, the management left the garden, spanning 3137.55 acres, without issuing any notice.

There are 1,265 workers in the estate in Alipurduar district. Right now, the workers do not get electricity or drinking water, nor have they got rations for 40 fortnights.

According to government officials, between July 1977 and April 1991, the then Left government had taken over four sick tea estates — namely Rungmook-Cedars, Rangaroon and Pandam in Darjeeling and Hilla in the Dooars.

All these were abandoned by their owners. The West Bengal Tea Development Corporation has been running these gardens since.

Food day

On World Food Day, state officials on Thursday distributed grains to tea workers in Totopara, Dheklapara and Red Bank tea estates, all of which are shut.

The officials distributed 5kg of rice to each family.

The state has identified 5,000 children along with their mothers suffering from malnutrition in the state and food minister Jyotipriya Mullick declared that all these mothers with children would get 9kg of foodgrains every month. The health and women and child welfare departments have identified the mothers and children.