Thapa urges govt to cancel 10 gardens' leasehapa urges govt to cancel 10 gardens' lease

SNS, DARJEELING, 12 JUNE 2022: President of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) Anit Thapa today set a deadline for the state government to cancel the lease of tea gardens run by the Bansal Group in areas under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). Mr Thapa said the government should act within five days, failing which the party said the gardens would be operated as co- operative societies.

The deadline to the government follows another deadline set by the Hill party for the Bansal Group to pay their workers in the 10 tea gardens their two-month wages. As the deadline for the gardens ended today Mr Thapa gave them five days more to clear the dues.

"I had earlier given time to the owners of the tea gardens, and now I am giving time of five days to the government to cancel their lease, after which we will be forced to run these gardens as a co-operative.  We are capable of doing this, and the only difference will hbe that there will be no owner in the 10 gardens," Mr Thapa told a public meeting held as part of his party's GTA election campaign in the Amhootia tea garden.

"The owners are always found lying and asking for a day or two to sort out the matter, but nothing is done in the end. We will not accept this, and have said that the dialogue with the owners has been closed," Mr Thapa said, adding that he had held a meeting with representatives of the 10 gardens.

Mr Thapa further maintained that the workers were somehow managing food for themselves and their family "But how would they pay the education fees of their children or money for their children staying as paying guests for education purposes? We have to be both labourers and owners, and I will do it now and show. We can do anything after that, be it opening hotels, homestays or also hammer nails wherever we want as it is our land," he said, maintaining that they were asking for wages that the tea garden workers had worked for, and instead they were being made to look like beggars.

The BGPM leader also announced a five-day programme to pressure the government on the demand. The programmes include workers skipping work in the bungalows of the 10 tea gardens until the matter is cleared, along with dharnas as at the DM office and other programmes in the 10 tea gardens.