Garden workers rally for new owner

Darjeeling, April 5: Labourers of Kanchan View tea estate today held a demonstration here to demand a change of management as work had been suspended in the garden for almost three years.

The rally under the aegis of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union was taken out even as a meeting was held between the representatives of the workers and the management here to discuss the garden’s opening.

A suspension of work was declared in the garden in May 2009 following an assault on the manager.

The union affiliated to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha said the workers had lost faith in the management.

“The labourers have lost faith in the management as they have been deprived of wages for so long. The management claims that workers were behind the attack but the assault on the garden official had actually been carried out by an outsider. We want a change of the management in the garden,” said Suraj Subba, the general secretary of the union.

Kanchan View spread over 223 hectares is 6km from Darjeeling. The garden with 123 permanent workers and 42 temporary labourers produces the premium Darjeeling tea.

The demonstration was held outside the Darjeeling district magistrate’s office where the meeting was being held by the joint labour commissioner of north Bengal, Md Rizwan, to iron out the differences between the workers and the management.

After the discussion, Rizwan said: “It seems that workers have lost trust in the management. But the garden management has decided to undertake confidence-building measures. We will hold another meeting after 10 days and we are hopeful that the garden will open soon.”

The group superintendent of the estate, V.D. Dua, also expressed hope that work would resume in the garden soon. Asked why the work had been suspended in the garden for long, he said: “If you look at the political situation in the hills from 2009 onwards, anybody would understand that it was not possible for all parties to sit together at a given time to discuss the matter.”

Rizwan said most tea garden owners declared suspension of work, instead of a lockout, so that they didn’t lose control of management.

“If a tea estate is declared closed, then the management will have to forego the right to run the plantation. That is why management only issues a suspension of work notice in most cases,” he said.

The Kanchan View management is likely to meet Morcha president Bimal Gurung as part of “confidence-building measures”. “We will meet him as and when he is free,” said Dua.

Subba said the new management should provide all benefits the workers were entitled to under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951.

The workers of Kanchan View took to the street a day after a few labourers of Ringtang tea garden had ended a fast seeking the cancellation of the estate’s lease. Ringtang estate, 30km from here, has been closed for 15 years. The hunger strike by the members of the Morcha union was withdrawn yesterday after state industries minister Partha Chatterjee had promised that he would look into the matter.(The Telegraph)