Lok adalat aid for estate - Panel hears 25 cases, 3-month deadline for owner

The Lok adalat in Gungaram tea garden on Sunday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

TT, Siliguri, Jan. 17: The Lok adalat held at Gungarampur Tea Estate owned by the Duncans Goenka Group today heard petitions of 25 workers and gave the management three months to address irregularities regarding their provident fund dues, gratuity and pension. 

The garden with around 1,700 permanent workers has provident fund dues amounting to around Rs 2.16 crore,  along with gratuity dues of around Rs 75 lakh. Although the estate is open, wages and rations have been irregular since February last year.

“It is the first time that such a Lok adalat has been organised in a tea garden. The petitions of 25 workers were put before us. What came to fore was that the non-payment was because of technical lapses like mismatched signatures, lack of proper documents, like death certificates, authorisation letters and bank account details,” said Amit Sarkar, the general secretary of Darjeeling District Legal Aid Forum, a welfare organisation. 

“We have sought clarification from the management and PF officials. We have allotted time ranging from one to three months, depending on the complication of a case, for the management and PF officials to rectify the lapses and errors and clear the dues without having to go to court,” he said.

Sarkar added that the 25 petitioners were given “on-spot decrees as a documental proof that their petitions have been heard and these would be used for future references when we carry out more such adalats in the tea garden”.

Other than Sarkar, the three-member panel that conducted the session today had Pradip Kumar Biswas, retired judge of Calcutta High Court, and Kanchan Bhadra, a senior lawyer of Siliguri additional chief judicial magistrate court. 

A Lok adalat can take up pending cases and bring about settlement without the people concerned having to go to court. Such sessions are convened to clear backlog and provide quick solutions.

The adalat was held on the garden premises, about 20km from here, and more than 100 workers were present.

Garden manager David Frank who attended the session said: “We are aware of the PF and gratuity, wages and pension dues of the workers and we are committed to paying them. The company is running in deficit and the workers, management and labour unions are working to solve the problems. We are waiting for a meeting of the management, ministers of different departments and tea garden unions where major decisions would be taken.” 

Regional provident fund commissioner M. Ngullie, additional district and session judge of Darjeeling and the chairperson of District Legal Services Authority, Monojit Mondal, and Ajay Kumar Das, the additional district and session judge of Siliguri, chairperson of Sub-Divisional Legal Services Committee of Siliguri, were present today.

The Lok adalat held at the behest of Justice Manjulla Chellur, the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was organised by Sub-Divisional Legal Services Committee of Siliguri. 

Abhijit Som, the member-secretary of State Legal Services Authority, said more such sessions would be held. “The root problem is lack of initiative from the management. Most workers are illiterate and not aware of legal and technical details. There is also lack of co-ordination in the management. We will conduct more such adalats to follow up on the cases heard today. We will also hear fresh petitions. Similar exercises will be taken up in other shut and ailing estates. We will also conduct legal camps for workers,” he said. 

Augustine Lakra, the president of INTTUC’s garden unit, said: “Ration is due for almost 55 weeks and bonus was not paid. The company has failed to give us medical benefits. We appeal to the Lok adalat to bring financial stability.”