Unions' demand

TT, Siliguri, Feb. 14: The Joint Forum, a group of 24 trade unions of tea plantation workers, today demanded that the Bengal government run the closed and ailing sick gardens, like in other states, through the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation.

"State governments in Kerala, Tripura, Assam and Tamil Nadu are running tea estates which were shut or abandoned by the management. These states worked together with the Centre and took over the ailing and shut gardens. That is why no deaths were reported from tea plantations in these states. The Bengal government, however, has acted in a different manner and sold five tea estates owned by the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation to private investors in 2014. We want the Bengal government to do what other states did vis-à-vis the tea sector. The state should ask the Centre to take over the sick gardens and transfer them to the tea development corporation," Ziaur Alam, the convener of the forum, said after a convention here today.

The forum also said it would conduct conventions from Mach 1 across the Dooars, Terai and the Darjeeling hills on overall issues concerning the tea sector and hold demonstrations in front of government offices at different places on March 17 to demand minimum wages in the industry.