‘Closure of Tea Board office in Dalgaon to affect labourers’

MP | 17 May 2023 : The regional office of the Tea Board in Dalgaon Birpara, Alipurduar district, has been closed down and merged with the Jalpaiguri regional office. In a notice dated May 8, 2023, Rishikesh Rai, the Secretary in-Charge of the Tea Board, mentioned the closure and merger of tea counters, regional offices, and sub-regional offices across the country. 

The order states that the regional office of the Tea Board located in Birpara will be merged with the regional office in Jalpaiguri. Alipurduar district has 63 tea gardens, employing over 300,000 workers, including temporary workers. Approximately 65 per cent of the district’s population belongs to the tea belt. T

o cater to the needs of the tea industry workers as well as the industry at large, a regional office of the Tea Board was established in Dalgaon in Birpara, Madarihat Block of Alipurduar district. However, the office ceased operations from May 8, this year. Birendra Bara Oraon, president of the Tea Garden Workers’ Union of Trinamool Congress (TCBSU), stated: “The Tea Board office had been non-functional for a long time. 

The office was meant to improve the conditions of the gardens and the workers but it failed to deliver any tangible results. 

\Even the stipends for students in the gardens had been pending for the past five years, despite repeated demands. Now, the central authority has closed down the Tea Board office and merged it with the Jalpaiguri office, which poses further challenges for the labourers who have to travel from tea gardens of Alipurduar to the Jalpaiguri district.” 

Bidyut Goon, president of the district CITU, said: “Many students from the tea gardens across the district rely on the Tea Board office for physical form submissions related to their higher studies. Now, they are required to travel to Jalpaiguri for this purpose.” Goon appealed to the authorities to reconsider their decision for the welfare of the tea workers. 

Chinmay Dhar, chairman of the Tea Association of India (TAI) in North Bengal, said: “There are numerous gardens in the Madarihat, Kalchini, Alipurduar-2, and Kumargram blocks of the district. Accessing the Tea Board office earlier took a maximum of two hours from any of the gardens in the district.” 

“However, now, they have to travel approximately 200 kilometres to Jalpaiguri from gardens in the Kumargram block, which significantly inconveniences the tea garden labourers.” 

Courtesy & source- Millennium Post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/closure-of-tea-board-office-in-dalgaon-to-affect-labourers-519015