Tea sweetener ahead of Bengal rural polls

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, Jan 19, 2018, Siliguri: A senior official of the Bengal agricultural department met representatives of small tea growers on Friday, the government's first engagement with a section of the industry said to account for over 50 per cent of the output.

Additional chief secretary Sanjeev Chopra listened to the growers' demands during the meet in Calcutta, organised by trade body Assocham and also attended by bankers and Tea Board officials.

There are over 50,000 such growers in north Bengal and the talks come ahead of rural polls this year. "This is the first time a senior bureaucrat listened to our problems," said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers' Associations (Cista).

In 2016-17, over 180 million kg of tea was produced by the small growers, more than the 177 million kg by estates.

The state government has managed to get tea planters of the Dooars and the Terai to an interim wage hike for garden workers but trade unions, barring those tied to the ruling Trinamul, rejected the move.

The hike of Rs 17.50 in the current daily wage of Rs 132.50 will take the rate to Rs 150. The new rate will be effective from January 2018. The decision, taken in Siliguri on Friday at a meeting chaired by state labour minister Moloy Ghatak, will hold unless a minimum wage is fixed or the rate is finally revised through further tripartite talks - the key demands of the non-Trinamul unions.

While leaders of Trinamul unions welcomed the move, those of the Joint Forum - a platform for 24 other unions - disagreed. "Trinamul leaders can now counter opponents on the wage issue (ahead of the rural polls)," said an observer.

Additional reporting by Bireswar Banerjee