Clarity on tea job soon

Vivek Chhetri, Darjeeling, Feb. 11: The West Bengal Tea Development Corporation Limited has decided to issue a clarification on its notice which gave employees of its five plantations an option to take up jobs with the state government if they didn't want to work with the new management to which the estates would be transferred soon.

Although the managing director of the corporation didn't elaborate on the nature of the clarification, a senior government official said the offer of government jobs mentioned in the notice issued on February 3 was only meant for managerial staff, not the 3,000-odd workers.

The notice issued by the MD of the government undertaking, Moumita Godara, had created confusion among the labourers of the five gardens - Pandam, Rangmook-Cedar and Rangaroon in the Darjeeling hills and Mohua and Hilla in the Dooars.

The labourers said they were confused as the notice didn't mention the type and location of government jobs.

Asked about the confusion, Godara told The Telegraph over the phone from Calcutta today: "They will get a clarification in this regard. It is from the higher authority. Only then can I speak with you."

By "the higher authority", she might have been referring to commerce and industry minister Amit Mitra, under whom the corporation falls.

A government official said the clarification essentially meant that the offer for government jobs to all employees did not stand. "There has been some miscommunication resulting in this confusion. As far as I know, the offer of government jobs was meant only for some managerial staff of the five estates," he said.

The three hill gardens have been sold to the Darjeeling Organic Tea Estate Private Limited, while the two estates in the Dooars have gone to Malnady Tea Estates Private Limited.

Even though the government is expected to issue a clarification stating the offer is meant only for selected employees, all previous correspondences have not mentioned this fact. The minutes of the 29th meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Infrastructure and Employment held at Nabanna on January 13, 2014 regarding the WBTDC gardens states: "Proposal contained in para-6 of the Cabinet Memo, were approved. It reiterated that all existing employees be given option to get adj(usted) against existing vacancies in district-level positions nearby."

A section in the Request for Proposal also gives an impression that the WBTDCL will provide the option of government jobs to the entire workforce. The operative part of the document states: "The Selected Bidder will have to employ the existing workforce, subject to the consent of such employee on terms and conditions not less favourable than terms of their present engagement. However, in the event of any employee employed by WBTDCL opting out, the Government of West Bengal in consultation with WBTDCL, if deems fit and proper to do so, ut(i)lize his/her services by way of deployment........"

A senior leader of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has protested the false promise given by the government. "The government first raised false hope and now its backtracking. If we are to believe that the option was only for selected employees, then why does the application format issued by the WBTDCL have a space for a thumb impression along with the signature. Are the managers and senior officials of the five estates illiterate that they have to be provided with space for a thumb impression?"