Pandemic over, now tea workers of Darjeeling bang their pots and pans for pending wages

EOI, DARJEELING, AUGUST29, 2022 :  During the pandemic, citizens of India had banged pots and pans in appreciation of the work of the medical fraternity. On Monday in Darjeeling, hundreds of tea garden workers participated in a rally banging their cookware; but for an altogether different reason. They also shouted slogans against the owner of the teagardens where they worked. Workers of the 10 teagardens, namely Ambootia, Monteviot, Magarjung, Moonda-Bansghari, Rongmook Cedar, Chongtong, Alubari, Happy Valley, Rangaroon and Pandam estates, under the Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Private Limited (DOTEPL), staged a rally from the Darjeeling railway station that culminated in the Darjeeling district administration office where a dharna was held; demanding the payment of pending wages and salaries.

The owners have failed to pay the workers their wages for four fortnights and salaries, amounting to more than Rs 3 crore, along with mandatory fringe benefits and gratuity. The Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM)-affiliated Hill Terai Dooars Plantation Workers Union (HTDPWU) is spearheading an agitation since the past eight days holding dharnas and gate meetings.

The HTDPWU has threatened to start a "chakkajam" protest programme in the hills to make their demand heard by the DOTEPL management and the West Bengal government. "Today, we organized a rally with utensils and slogan shouting against the management. We will if required organize 'chakkajam' to protest in the future,"said HTDPWU, working president, J. B. Tamang.

The BGPM-led trade union has also demanded that the lease of the DOTEPL be cancelled and anew management be given charge to run the 10 tea
gardens. 

"We will not deter from our agitation to demand cancellation of the lease of the present owners if they cannot operate the gardens properly. We will even agitate during the Puja festival of Dasai," said Tamang, while appealing to workers of the other tea gardens in the hills to support the ongoing agitation. 

There are 87 tea gardens in the hills owned by different owners which include the 10 of the DOTEPL which is run by a group of foreign investors who were earlier the buyers. District Magistrate of Darjeeling S Ponnambalam said the owners of the DOTEPL had been asked to attend a meeting on September 2 to resolve the issue. 

"We are creating pressure on the owners of the 10 tea gardens. We have directed them to attend a meeting to sort out the impasse and explain why their lease should not be cancelled," he said. 

BGPM president and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration chairman Anit Thapa has also sought cancellation of the lease of the DOTEPL and appealed to the State Government to provide financial assistance to the workers.

Darjeeling M. P. Raju Singh Bista too has written to the Centre, requesting intervention to provide relief to more than 7,000 workers of the 10 teagardens.