Tea garden workers under Union Govt endure 6- week wage non-payment

MP, 29 June 2024, Alipurduar: Laborers from four tea gardens under the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises have not received their wages for six weeks. 

Over the last two years, PF and gratuity payments amounting to approximately Rs 11 crore are still due. About 6,000 workers in these gardens have not received any salary or minimum treatment facilities, leading to intense anger in the tea plantations of New Dooars, Banarhat, Karbala and Chunavati in the Jalpaiguri district. 

The general secretary of the Trinamool Cha Bagan Sramik Union (TCBSU), Robin Rai, has written a detailed letter to Union minister H D Kumaraswamy about the incident. Robin Rai said: “I have informed the Union minister about the situation. We will give the Central government only one month to resolve this. 

If there is no change, the tea workers will launch an agitation. In 2021, Nirmala Sitharaman announced Rs 1000 crore for tea plantations but the state tea industry received nothing. This time the Central government is failing to manage its own tea gardens.” 

These gardens are currently supervised by Messrs Andrew Yule Company. About 25,000 people, from children to the elderly, in those gardens are facing problems due to non-payment of wages for over a month. 

There are currently five tea gardens under the Central government in North Bengal, one in the Darjeeling hills and four in the Jalpaiguri plains. 

Courtesy & source- Millennium Post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/mamata-welcomes-jkhands-former-cm-sorens-bail-569890?infinitescroll=1