30 crèches in N Bengal will be operational before Durga Puja: Labour department

MP | 4 Aug 2023 | Kolkata: State Labour minister Moloy Ghatak said on Friday that at least 30 odd crèches in North Bengal will be operational before the Durga Puja. The state has already sanctioned 71 crèches and work for 45 of them has already started. The total fund allotted for building them is over Rs 23.77 crore. 

“We have received sanction for 44 health centres and work for 22 of them has already begun. Funds worth Rs 35.32 crore have been allotted for these health centres,” Ghatak said during the question-answer session at the state Assembly. 

Both the crèche and the health centre facilities will come up in the vacant land of the tea gardens spanning around one acre in Alipurduar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Kalimpong. 

The move follows the promise made by Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at a public meeting at Malbazar in September last year where he announced a slew of facilities for tea garden workers, including identity cards and healthcare benefits. 

“This is for the first time that health centres are being set up by the state Labour department. These will provide prompt medical treatment to the workers and their families. Each of these centres will have an ambulance facility for quick shifting of a sick person to the hospital if the doctor feels so,” the minister said. 

A majority of the tea garden workers are women who have to pluck tea leaves with a basket on their back and at the same time carry their children. “The women workers will no longer have to carry their children on their backs during duty once the crèches come up,” he maintained. 

The facilities of health centres are being developed with the objective of catering not only to the tea garden workers but also to construction workers. 

“In North Bengal, there are many rivers whose banks are strewn with pebbles. The breaking of such pebbles is an industry there and a lot of construction workers are involved in this. So, the health centres will be beneficial for them too.” 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/30-crches-in-n-bengal-will-be-operational-before-durga-puja-labour-department-528162