Govt help in closed tea estates in Jalpaiguri

TT, Jalpaiguri: The Jalpaiguri district administration is moving into closed and sick tea estates to extend all possible help to workers and their families.

Under the "Sanyong" initiative, teams from different state government departments are visiting these gardens.

"We are putting up stalls of different government departments in the gardens. People are being informed about the initiative beforehand and asked to visit the stalls for any query or to receive assistance in resolving problems. They are then being helped and guided by the officials concerned," said Shilpa Gourisaria, the district magistrate of Jalpaiguri.

Last month, the administration held a similar camp at Manabari, one of the closed tea gardens in the district. Arou- nd 20 stalls were put up and an awareness programme was organised.

"The initiative is helping the locals to have easy access to the administration. They can enrol themselves as beneficiaries of schemes as per the guidelines, get information as to how they can get a Scheduled Tribe certificate, a job card for 100 days' work and other benefits," an official said.

Those from the administration are also listening to the demands raised by the locals with regard to amenities such as drinking water, roads and electricity.

"We had held an event at the Shikarpur Tea Estate in the district, where people asked for certain facilities such as electricity connections, recruitment of teachers in local primary schools, inadequate drinking water and lack of repair of quarters by the garden management. We took note of each of these issues and explained to them that the administration would make follow-up moves to deal with each issue," the official added.

At these camps, assistances provided to people under government schemes are also being handed over to local residents.

"Earlier, people living in remote areas of the tea gardens had to visit the panchayat office or even the block office to collect the assistance, which can be a bicycle or even some high-yielding variety crop seeds. But as we have taken the initiative, they are getting the assistance right at the garden and no longer need to travel. The idea is to bring in maximum number of people under the social schemes and help each household in these tea gardens," Gourisaria said.