Tea garden unions demand price increase for unprocessed leaves

EOI, Jalpaiguri, 28 Oct 2014 :A joint forum of small-scale tea workers’ unions in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday staged a dharna in front of the Jalpaiguri district magistrate’s office demanding an increase in the cost of unprocessed tea leaves. The joint forum also threatened to stage a bigger movement including hunger strikes if its demand is not met. The joint forum consisting of members from three tea garden unions in Jalpaiguri staged a protest rally in town right up to the DM’s office and staged a dharna.

Jalpaiguri District Shuddha Chai Chassi Samiti general secretary Bijay Gopal Chakraborthy said there are about 20,000 small-scale tea gardens in the district that employ lakhs of workers. “Currently, these workers are in a bad condition as unprocessed tea leaves are being sold at Rs2-3 per kg in comparison to the standard rate of Rs13,” he explained. Chakraborthy blamed processing and packaging companies for the fall in the cost of unprocessed tea leaves. He added the main reason for holding the protest was due to lack of response from the DM’s office to the correspondence the Samiti had made over the issue.