Call to cancel garden lease

TT, Siliguri, Nov. 27:The Hill Trinamul Congress today demanded that the state government cancel the lease of Panighata Tea Estate which had been shut since October 10 and find a new owner who could run the garden properly.

Rajen Mukhia, the president of Darjeeling hill committee of Trinamul, raised the demand after a four-hour long meeting called to discuss the reopening of the garden failed to solve the impasse. The meeting was called by Kallol Banerjee, the deputy labour commissioner.

"At the meeting, the management's representative indicated that they were not prepared to reopen the garden. Hundreds of workers and their families are living in acute financial crisis and yet, the management is not ready to consider their situation... such attitude by the management shows that it is unlikely that the owner will take any initiative to reopen the garden. We want the state government to cancel the land lease and find a new owner," Mukhia told journalists.

The Panighata estate has around 800 permanent workers and 700 temporary labourers. The garden was closed on October 10 after a dispute cropped between the management and workers over the payment of bonus.

Leaders of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union, the trade union of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, supported Trinamul's demand, but said that wouldn't solve the problem.

"The garden owner did not attend the meeting and sent a representative who could not clarify when the garden would be reopened. We support the demand raised by the other union that if the management is incapable of running the garden, the state should see that the estates goes to a competent management. Simultaneously, we must realise that it is a long-drawn process and not an immediate solution," said Harihar Acharya, the convener of the Terai committee of the Morcha union.

The management representative present at the meeting said the owner was seriously ill and he wanted to attend the next talks.

The next meeting is likely to be held after around 20 days.