Alipurduar garden shuts down

TT, Alipurduar: Work at the Kohinoor tea estate in Alipurduar came to a halt Tuesday as the company running the garden on the basis of an agreement with the garden's owner pulled out citing legal issues.

The move has left around 900 workers jobless.

Located 20km from here, the garden had closed down on September 17 last year after management representative left without issuing any notice. The state labour department and the district administration intervened.

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On March 9 this year, representatives of Kohinoor Tea Company Ltd, which owns the garden, wrote to the district administration mentioning that they have initiated a process to hand over the garden to another company that would reopen and run it.

Accordingly, a meeting was held on March 22 at Uttarkanya in Siliguri, where the owner brought in representatives of the new company that would run the garden. The ownership however, remained with the old owner. An agreement was signed and on March 25, the garden reopened.

The company that has been running the garden recently learned that the National Company Law Tribunal has instructed that property of the garden should be attached to clear dues of a nationalised bank to which the owner owes over Rs 20 crore.

"In pursuant, to submission of petition by some creditors who are yet to get their dues cleared by the owner of Kohinoor, the National Company Law Tribunal has instructed initiation of the process Under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016. This means, the garden and its properties would be sold to clear the dues. That is why the company that has been running the garden has withdrawn itself as the tribunal's instruction has made the agreement, that is it has made with the owner to run the garden, null and void," said a source.

On Monday, managerial staff members have left the garden and have issued a notice, mentioning the decision in an elaborate manner.

The decision has left Trinamul leaders disappointed. "It is unfortunate. There was no other problem but due to legal complications, the garden has closed down. We will speak at concerned quarters to explore options as how the garden can be reopened at the earliest,"" said Mohan Sharma, Alipurduar district Trinamul president.

Officials of state labour department said they have convened a tripartite meeting on the issue.

"On August 30, we will hold a meeting in Alipurduar to discuss on the closure and other ancillary issues," said Kallol Dutta, the deputy labour commissioner of Alipurduar.