Four tea gardens in Darj Hills all set to reopen today

Amitava Banerjee,  MP, 17 Feb 2023, SILIGURI: As many as 4 closed tea gardens of the Darjeeling Hills are all set to be operational from February 18 with the lease of the gardens changing hands. 

This was decided at a tripartite meeting held at the Shramik Bhawan, Dagapur, Siliguri on Friday. In the meeting held between the management and operating tea gardens in the presence of Chief Executive, GTA; Additional Chief Secretary Labour Department, Government of West Bengal four bipartite memorandums of settlement were signed between the Management and the Operating trade union for the four gardens. 

With this the Allobari tea estate has been taken over by Greenleaf Ventures; Pandam along with Rangmook Cedar by Royal Ruby Tea and Agro Company and Rangaeyrong tea estate by BD Tea Estate, Chamong Group. In the meeting, it was agreed upon that the new management will pay wages and salary regularly from February 18, 2023. 

In regards to past dues, including wages, salary PF and gratuity shall be assessed, verified within a period of two months and will be distributed as mutually agreed between the management and operating trade unions. It was agreed that Rs 4000 as wage and Rs. 6000 as salary for the month of January 2023 will be paid to each worker and employee who shall report to duty continuously for three days from the date of opening of the garden. “This was only possible owing to the intervention of the Bengal government and initiative of the Labour department. 

Our Government has always been working for the rights of the workers,” stated NB Khawas, vice-president of Trinamool Chia Kaman Shramik Union. The management of these tea gardens was earlier with the Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Pvt. Ltd (DOTEPL) along with 6 other gardens in the Hills. 

They had defaulted wages, salary, bonus, PF, gratuity of the workers and have been operating erratically. They have been shut down off and on in 2022 owing non-payment. The Shree Shree Narayani and Company had also run these four gardens from February 10, 2022 for a few months but on February 10 had withdrawn, citing paucity of funds. 

Suraj Subba, the president of Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union said: “Finally after a long discussion, the gardens are all set to become operational. We are hopeful that the new owner will give the labourers their actual rights.” 

Courtesy & source - Millennium post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/four-tea-gardens-in-darj-hills-all-set-to-reopen-today-509038