Tea garden lockout after workers' attack

Vivek Chhetri and Abhranila Das, TT, Darjeeling, Oct. 31: A lockout was declared today at the century-old Shree Dwarika tea estate, popularly known as Vah Tukvar, after three of its officials were allegedly assaulted by a group of workers yesterday morning.

All the 12 workers named by the management of the garden, 10km from Darjeeling town and owned by the Chamong Tea Group, were arrested today. They were granted bail by the chief judicial magistrate's court.

The garden has 300 workers and is spread over 185 hectares. The Chamong Group is the largest producer of organic Darjeeling tea. The Vah Tukvar garden produces 40,000kg of tea every year.

The court issued a showcause notice to the police after observing that the sections invoked in the case did not reflect the gravity of the charges made by the management in the FIR. The police had booked the accused under the bailable penal code Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intent).

Sandeep Mukherjee, principal adviser to the Darjeeling Tea Association, said: "There are two sections in the garden, upper and lower. The management had asked the workers in the upper division to prune the tea bushes and those in the lower division to pluck tealeaves."

He added: "However, some of the male workers from the lower division refused to pluck leaves and asked for the pruning job. When the management refused, they attacked the executives."

Mukherjee alleged that the workers attacked deputy manager Dinesh Roka, assistant manager Premsukh Chaudhari and assistant manager (factory) Amit Kumar Thakur "with sickles and stones with the intention of murdering them".

Chaudhari has been admitted to hospital.

Ashok Lohia, chairman of the Chamong Tea Group, alleged "indiscipline and gross disobedience" on the part of the workers.

"They shouldn't have taken the law into their own hands. As far as I know, the workers do not even have demands and grievances," he said.

"Despite it being a sick garden, we have treated all the workers on a par with the rest of our gardens. They have not been deprived of any facilities. However, if they did have any complaints, they should have spoken to the management or approached it through the workers' union."

The tea estate was taken over by the Chamong Group, which owns 13 gardens in the Darjeeling hills, in 2006.

The only trade union at the garden is the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union.

P.T. Sherpa, the union president, alleged that the problem arose when the workers were asked to work overtime.

"I think the management could have handled the situation calmly," he said.