Tea unions' barb at Centre & state

TT, Siliguri, Nov. 13: Trade unions today said the Centre and the state were doing little to find owners for four tea gardens whose lease had been cancelled and questioned the chief minister's sincerity in seeing that the closed plantations re-opened.

During a five-day trip to north Bengal earlier this month, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said in her public speeches that planters should either run gardens in a proper manner otherwise, the state would "take over" the estates.

Today, Ziaur Alam, the Jalpaiguri district secretary of the Citu, said: "The state government cannot take over a tea estate. It can be acquired only by the Centre by invoking the Tea Act, 1953. The state can at best cancel the land lease of tea estates and so far, the present government has cancelled the lease of four closed tea estates."

He went on: "The state had hurriedly sold all the five gardens of the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation (three in the Darjeeling hills and two in the Dooars) last year. However, no initiative was taken to scout for new investors for the four estates. Unless the matter is taken up with the Centre and the Tea Act is invoked, the state cannot change the gardens' ownership on its own. We are disappointed that despite knowing all technicalities and legal issues, the chief minister had said twice that the state would take over more tea gardens."

Chitta Dey, the convener of the Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers, an apex body of 24 tea trade unions, was critical of the Centre.

"We fail to understand why the central government is sitting idle and not taking any step against companies like Duncans' Goenka Group which have been depriving around 25,000 workers and their families of their wages and rations for the past eight months. The Centre is well aware that the state has cancelled the lease of four gardens and unless they intervene, there is virtually no chance that these gardens will reopen."

The unions had already decided to organise relay hunger strikes at the end of this month and a one-day industry strike on December 1 on the issue.

The Trinamul Congress, however, denied the charge that the state was neglecting the tea sector.

"Unlike the Left government, the Mamata government has been providing all possible relief and assistance to workers in closed and ailing tea gardens since 2011. The chief minister is concerned about workers and has warned planters against violating laws which govern the tea industry. It is high time that the Central government acts and takes necessary steps," said Alok Chakraborty, the working president of the INTTUC-backed Terai Dooars Plantation Workers' Union.