Binay drive on gardens

Rebel Morcha leader Anit Thapa speaks at a public meeting in Kurseong on Sunday

TT, Siliguri, Sept. 17: The Binay Tamang faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to visit closed tea gardens in the hills from tomorrow and urge workers to rejoin their duties.

This is the first time that the Binay camp has planned to speak to people employed in a particular sector, though its leaders have been approaching general public with an appeal to defy the ongoing strike.

Karuna Gurung, a leader of the Binay lobby, told a public meeting in Kurseong today that from tomorrow, they would visit tea estates and urge workers to rejoin jobs.

"We are in touch with the workers as well as the management of a number of tea estates in the hills, some of which will reopen from tomorrow. The gardens need to start functioning for workers' hardship to end," said Karuna, who is the president of the Kurseong subdivisional unit of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union, a wing of the Morcha.

Her claim that some tea gardens would reopen couldn't be confirmed independently.

Anit Thapa, a leader of the Binay camp of the Morcha, also addressed the meeting in Kurseong.

Karuna was one of the delegates who had represented the Morcha at the second round of bipartite talks with the state government at Uttarkanya here on September 12.

Tea garden workers and their families are the worst affected because of the ongoing general strike that entered Day 95 today. The labourers have not received wages for the past three months and it is not clear whether they will get the annual bonus ahead of the Puja season.

The hills have 87 tea estates with over 55,000 workers.

"Over two lakh people live in hill tea gardens. If the Binay faction manages to persuade workers to defy the strike, it would be a jolt to the Bimal Gurung lobby. Equal number of people are engaged in the tourism sector and are bearing the brunt of the strike. But there is little chance that the Puja season will be a hit for the hills even if normality is restored. But for the tea sector, the production continues till December, though in less quantities," an observer said.