Chiding to planters, eye on tea belt - Gimmick after silence,Say rivals

Mamata Banerjee at the public meeting at Alipurduar Parade Grounds on Tuesday.
Picture by Anirban Choudhury

AVIJIT SINHA and ANIRBAN CHOWDHURY, TT, Alipurduar, Nov. 3: Mamata Banerjee today said if the Duncans Goenka Group was unable to run its tea estates, the state would take over the gardens.

Left-backed tea union leaders said her words were "amusing gimmick" after eight months of silence by her government on the spiral of workers' wage problems and deaths.

In a mix of Hindi and Bengali, in her effort to communicate with many Hindi-speaking tea workers in Alipurduar, Mamata said her government had told the group: " Agar aap log thik se rupiya de sakte ho, to mazdoor ko rupiya do. Thik se sab kuchh kar sakte hain, to achcha se chalao. Agar aap nahin kar sakte ho, to hum takeover kar lenge, state government (If you can run the gardens properly by paying the labourers, then do so. Otherwise, the state government will take over.)"

The chief minister's warning to the G.P. Goenka-led group came two days after the CID called Goenka, who is the chairman, and his son Srivardhan for questioning but neither turned up yesterday or today at the agency's office in Calcutta.

In her speech at the Alipurduar Parade Grounds, Mamata focused on tea workers, a constituency her party has not been able to win over as Trinamul's effort to form unions in the Dooars gardens have failed.

Ziaur Alam, the Jalpaiguri district Citu secretary and convener of the Joint Forum, a platform of 24 tea unions, said Mamata's remarks were an "amusing gimmick".

Alam pointed out that the government had been silent for eight months, during which time 15,000-20,000 workers in 14 gardens of the Duncans Group and their dependents were facing hardships on account of wage dues and irregular ration supply.

In this period, there have been at least 50 deaths in various gardens of the group and in most cases, the workers have alleged that the deaths were because of malnutrition.

Representatives of several tea planters' associations, on condition of anonymity, said such statements by the chief minister were "disappointing" and "uncalled for".

Months before the state is scheduled to face Assembly elections, the deaths and payment trouble in gardens would be counter-productive for Trinamul leaders in the tea belt.

The chief minister said: "Tea workers are entitled to their wages, provident fund and other benefits. But one thing is very clear. If somebody does not want to run tea estates, then give it to us. We will take it over. But don't betray workers and don't cause any inconvenience to them. We will find somebody to run the gardens or else, we will take over the management."

A case of non-payment of PF dues of Rungli Rungliot workers in Darjeeling is also pending against the Duncans Goenka Group.

The case taken up by the CID in Calcutta pertains to a complaint by a Rungli Rungliot worker who has alleged that the Goenkas have not cleared wage and ration dues for almost a year. An official of Duncans Industries Ltd, who did not want to be named, had said arrears for only a month are pending.

Duncans Industries Ltd is the arm of the group that deals with its tea business. In one of the Duncans gardens, Bagracote in Jalpaiguri, 12 labourers or their family members have died in the past month.

The chief minister also alleged that tea workers were facing problems as some of the planters had abandoned their gardens or declared closure but have not paid the electricity bills.

"There are some tea estates which are closed. In these gardens, workers are in a pathetic condition as the management has not paid the wages, has not cleared electricity bills. Even drinking water supply is not available in these gardens," Mamata said.

"Today we have given instructions so that electricity connections and drinking water connections are restored. The state government will provide subsidy in this regard but the workers should get electricity and water. The owner who has done this badmashi, we will take care of him later."

Tea sector associations said the speech could adversely affect the industry. "There might be some isolated incidents, but generally a planter who has made investments does not leave or close the garden unless there are any disruptive activities which affect normal functioning of the garden," a senior representative of a planters' association, said. "We are disappointed with the remarks and would say that even today, tea industry provides the highest employment in north Bengal and is one of the prime pillars of economy in the region."

A senior trade union leader in Siliguri said: "With Assembly polls round the corner, the chief minister has started accusing a section of planters and tea companies in public to consolidate votes of tea workers. There are at least eight Assembly seats in the Terai and the Dooars where votes of tea workers will prove decisive."

In Calcutta, a general manager of the Duncans Industries Ltd turned up at the CID headquarters this morning with a message that DIL chairman G.P. Goenka and his son Srivardhan would not be able to meet the sleuths to face the probe into workers' dues from the company.

Both were supposed to meet the investigators today.

Subir Chatterjee, the general manager (law), "told us that the company would arrange funds to pay workers' dues partially. But we have no interest in it because the CID is not a recovery agency to help workers to get their dues cleared. We are probing into the complaint lodged by a worker and interrogation of GP and Srivardhan is required for the sake of investigation," said a CID officer.

According to him, the investigating agency would wait till the deadline given by Mukherjee. "We are not going to take any step like issuing arrest warrant against GP and Srivardhan immediately," he added,