Tea workers block road

Workers of Madhu Tea Estate block the Jaigaon Road in front of the garden gate
'on Monday. Picture by Anirban Chaudhary

TT, Alipurduar, April 13: Hundreds of workers of the closed Madhu Tea Estate blocked a busy road which passes through the garden, for around five hours this morning, as they want the management to re-open the garden.

The workers blocked Jaigaon road from 8 am to 1 pm. Madhu Tea Estate is 36km from Alipurduar town and has 950 workers.

The blockade was lifted after the joint block development officer intervened and assured the workers that they would be given 12 kg rice tomorrow and that a tripartite meeting would be held on April 20 between the trade union leaders, the garden management and the joint labour commissioner in Siliguri.

Local people who wanted to go to the block headquarter at Kalchini from Hasimara, Dalshingpara, and Jaigaon were stranded because of the blockade. The vehicles were stopped in front of Madhu Tea Estate.

The workers sat on the road and demanded that the garden be re-opened.

Sunil Oraon, the leader of Progressive Tea Worker's Union, said:"The joint BDO of Kalchini Akhil Mandal along with the police assured us that tomorrow every worker will receive 12 kg of rice from the administration. Apart from it, we also came to know that on April 20, a tripartite meeting has been organised in the office of joint labour commissioner in Siliguri. So we withdrew the blockade."