Food department visits Bagrakote tea garden, submits report

Pinak Priya Bhattacharya,TNN | Oct 29, 2015, KOLKATA: The food department team investigating the alleged malnourishment-led death of a worker at Bagrakote tea estate in Malbazar prompted the food department to send a team in the garden to the estate on Tuesday. District food controller Rinchen Sherpa ruled out starvation or malnutrition as the cause. The report will be sent to food minister Jyotipriyo Mallik. He admitted that the condition at the garden was poor. 

"I had been to the garden following the minister's instruction. Although condition is bad there, there hasn't been any starvation or malnutrition case reported. We found that Mukti Santhal, the 44-year-old woman, died of cardiac ailments," Sherpa said. 

Sources said at least eight persons had died over the past six weeks due to malnutrition. They had further alleged that the garden was abandoned by the management in February this year, affecting the livelihood of nearly 1,500 workers. 

GP Goenka, chairman of Duncans Industries Ltd, said, that owns the tea estate, refuted the allegations and said that not only was Bagrakote operational, none of the 15 tea estates belonging to the company was closed or abandoned by the management. 

Goenka also dismissed the reports of eight deaths owing to alleged malnutrition "This is incorrect. Someone may have died of a snakebite or some other cause. I don't have records of any malnutrition-led death. As for Mukti Santhal, she plucked tea leaves according to routine till Saturday. She fell ill on Sunday and died. She reportedly went on a drinking spree on Sunday, lost consciousness and never recovered. The block medical officer, Malbazar, has confirmed that she was a patient of high blood pressure and was being treated for the same." Goenka said. 

He further pointed out that Santhal had access to both a reasonable sum of money and essential food items, and therefore, could not have died of starvation. 

"Santhal was regular in her work and during the month of October alone, her earnings amounted to Rs 2,795. In addition, Rs 1,098 was disbursed to her as bonus on October 17. Workers at the tea gardens are regular recipients of ration disbursed through the state government. Santhal's household consisting of two members received 15 kg of rice, 3 kg of wheat and 1 kg of sugar in October," he said. 

However, the workers' union stuck to its claims. "It is obvious that there is a problem there or else why would the food department distribute food in the gardens? The visit by officials to the garden proves that malnourishment and starvation reports are not mere allegations," said Chitta Dey, convener of Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers' Union.The health department has started running a medical camp in Bagrakote tea estate from Wednesday. The medical team is doing the rounds of labour lines at the garden and looking for ailing workers to prevent further deaths.