Crisis Grips Dooars Tea Belt as Bonus Disputes Lead to Manager Arrests and Sudden Estate Abandonment

KalimNews, Oct 19, 2026, Mal Bazar: Tensions have escalated dramatically across the Dooars tea belt in North Bengal as a severe bonus dispute casts a dark shadow over the festive celebrations of Durga Puja and local hill festivities. What should have been a time of joy has instead devolved into widespread unrest, road blockades, demonstrations, and police interventions as numerous tea estate managements failed to disburse the customary 20 percent bonus recommended by the state government, while some managements stubbornly attempted to settle the dues in instalments.

The crisis reached a boiling point in Alipurduar, where law enforcement officials arrested a total of five tea estate managers over the non-payment of workers' dues. Following earlier worker protests, police detained the managers of Dumsipara, Garganda, and Hantupara tea estates on Friday, and subsequently apprehended two more managers—Somnath Ghosh of Birpara and Dinesh Choube of Tulsipara—in the district's Madarihat block on Saturday. All five of these affected tea gardens are under the ownership of Merico. Following the arrest of these tea garden managers, the owners of the above five tea gardens have now started paying the bonus to their workers. The initial trio arrested on Friday were produced before the chief judicial magistrate's court in Alipurduar on Saturday and were remanded to four days in police custody, while the wider unrest rapidly expanded to encompass several other estates, including Demdima, Nageiguree, and Kilcott, where workers staged determined dharnas outside factory gates.

Parallel to these arrests, the situation deteriorated severely at the Bharnobari tea estate in Alipurduar's Kalchini block. On Friday night at approximately 9 p.m., the management abruptly abandoned the property without providing any prior formal notice, locking the factory, offices, and the manager's bungalow behind them. This sudden departure left roughly 1,300 permanent workers and an additional 400 staff members, sub-staff, and temporary personnel facing extreme job uncertainty and an estimated unpaid bonus pool of around Rs 1.75 crore. Shocked workers arriving for their shifts on Saturday morning discovered the locked premises and immediately took to the streets, demonstrating outside the Hasimara police outpost.

The unrest also spread widely to other estates. The tea garden workers had to stage protests at Yongtong and Samsing Tea Gardens; after the intervention of Minister Bishal Lama, workers of the Samsing tea garden finally received their entitled bonus. Similarly, workers of the Bagrakote Tea Garden were forced to come to the streets for their demands and protests over the last two weeks, staging a strike on National Highway 31C when management failed to pay the bonus despite a promised deadline of October 13th. Meanwhile, tea garden workers of the Sonagachi Tea Garden faced a parallel problem when the management responded that they were only able to pay a 15 percent bonus. Across the region, some more tea garden owners were found reluctant in paying the full 20 percent bonus, leaving their cases in a complete stalemate even though Puja has already started.

Local political figures and trade union leaders have stepped into the fray to demand immediate administrative action. Following intense agitations, local MLA and Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bishal Lama, personally instructed the district administration to crack down on managements failing to settle their workers' dues. A local workers' leader named Gautam directly appealed to Mr. Lama to intervene and guarantee the disbursement of the outstanding bonuses. Meanwhile, Rajesh Barla, general secretary of the Bharatiya Tea Workers' Union, publicly urged the labour department to urgently convene a tripartite meeting to defuse the crisis, while other trade union voices asserted that targeting managers alone is insufficient and that the ultimate garden owners must face legal consequences as well. Alipurduar MP Manoj Tigga had earlier convened meetings with the administration to encourage negotiations, and discontent has similarly spread to Nagrakata, where workers voiced their frustrations to local MLA Puna Bhengra.

The unfolding crisis has highlighted a stark socio-economic divide across the region. While employees in financially stable tea estates celebrate the festive season with their full 20 percent bonuses safely in hand, thousands of families in struggling gardens are left with little scope for celebration amid deep financial distress. With protests, demonstrations, and road blockades persisting, affected workers continue to flatly reject proposals for instalment-based settlements and are demanding swift government intervention to secure their rightful earnings and hold responsible management bodies accountable.