Tea garden to reopen today
TT, 4 Jun 2019, Alipurduar: A tea garden in the Dooars will reopen on Tuesday following the intervention of Alipurduar BJP MP John Barla at a meeting of trade unions and planters on Monday.
Located in the Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri district, the Grassmore garden was abandoned by the management in January following irregularities in wage payment that led to protests by workers.
The estate has 1,251 permanent workers.
The garden falls in the Alipurduar Lok Sabha segment.
Barla, who is also chairman of the BJP-backed Bharatiya Tea Mazdoor Union, on Monday attended a meeting held in the Tea Association of India's office. Representatives of other trade unions were present.
"From Tuesday, work will resume in the garden. Also, we will pay Rs 1,600 to each worker. It will take at least 45 days to bring back the garden to the old condition. After six months, we will have another meeting to discuss some other issues," said Moloy Maitra, the garden's manager.
Barla said: "As I learnt about the bipartite meeting on Grassmore, I decided to attend it. Being an elected representative, I felt it necessary to represent the workers and listen to the management. It is good that the discussion yielded results," he said.
The move, political analysts said, indicates that Barla and his party are sincere in retaining their support base in the tea belt.
"In north Bengal, there are around 15 Assembly constituencies where votes of tea workers decide the results. In the Parliament elections, the BJP has managed to secure lead in most of these constituencies and such initiative by the MP indicates that they do not want to lose the base," said an observer. During the campaign for the Parliament elections in 2014 and the Assembly polls in 2016, BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had assured tea workers and their families that they would look into their problems.
Located in the Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri district, the Grassmore garden was abandoned by the management in January following irregularities in wage payment that led to protests by workers.
The estate has 1,251 permanent workers.
The garden falls in the Alipurduar Lok Sabha segment.
Barla, who is also chairman of the BJP-backed Bharatiya Tea Mazdoor Union, on Monday attended a meeting held in the Tea Association of India's office. Representatives of other trade unions were present.
"From Tuesday, work will resume in the garden. Also, we will pay Rs 1,600 to each worker. It will take at least 45 days to bring back the garden to the old condition. After six months, we will have another meeting to discuss some other issues," said Moloy Maitra, the garden's manager.
Barla said: "As I learnt about the bipartite meeting on Grassmore, I decided to attend it. Being an elected representative, I felt it necessary to represent the workers and listen to the management. It is good that the discussion yielded results," he said.
The move, political analysts said, indicates that Barla and his party are sincere in retaining their support base in the tea belt.
"In north Bengal, there are around 15 Assembly constituencies where votes of tea workers decide the results. In the Parliament elections, the BJP has managed to secure lead in most of these constituencies and such initiative by the MP indicates that they do not want to lose the base," said an observer. During the campaign for the Parliament elections in 2014 and the Assembly polls in 2016, BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had assured tea workers and their families that they would look into their problems.
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