No starvation death in tea belt, says Mamata

TOI, 12 April 2016, Jalpaiguri: There had not been any starvation death and no one had died of malnourishment in the tea belt of north Bengal during her regime, chief minister Mamata Banerjee claimed at an election campaign meeting in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday. 

The Trinamool chief asserted that had there been cases of starvation or malnutrition deaths in the tea gardens, she would have known it. 

"We provide rice at 47 paise per kg, so there is no question of starvation," she claimed. 

Her comment might seem a little contradictory, especially since the tea estates in the Dooars have registered nearly 200 deaths from September last year to January this year, though the government figure pegs it at a much lower 78. 

Residents of gardens claimed that lack of food, dearth of basic amenities and absence of medical facilities led to the deaths, but the government had all along denied those as reasons. 

State officials claimed that tea workers' drinking habit led to their ailments and subsequent deaths.

In Dooars, seven gardens have been either shut or abandoned, renadering more than 20,000 workers unemployed and putting the lives of around 80,000 people-workers' families-at stake.

Mamata lashed out at the Congress-LF and BJP-GJM. "The Congress or CPM hasn't fielded any candidate against the GJM. I will now allow division of Bengal," she said.