The management has pulled out of a tea garden in the Terai, citing insecurity after wages were delayed "due to the demonetisation effects".
Senior officers of Tirrihannah tea estate, located around 35km from Siliguri, left the garden around midnight on Thursday after sending a general notice to the Indian Tea Association and the Darjeeling administration. The garden has 1,200 permanent and 1,300 casual workers.
The notice expressed fears that the managers would be assaulted since wages of workers had been delayed. "It is to be noted that their wages were delayed due to the demonetisation effects announced by the Government of India and for which the banks could not arrange funds in time," the notice said.
Since the banks were not identified, the claim could not be verified. No official of the tea company, headquartered in Kiran Shankar Roy Road in Calcutta, could be contacted.
Gautam Ghosh, the general secretary of the Citu-affiliated Chai Kaman Mazdoor Union, said the management was using the cash crisis as an excuse but suggested that the company had paid wages till November 8, the day demonetisation was announced. "Tirrihannah has not made a single payment since the announcement on November 8 on the note ban. There was no agitation and workers did not prevent the despatch of made tea. The management used the cash crisis as an excuse to shut down the garden."
Ghosh expressed the fear that "many other gardens will also do the same". The Terai and the Dooars have around 276 gardens and the Darjeeling hills around 87. They account for over 4.25 lakh workers.
An economics professor with the North Bengal University said that the fear of a slowdown in North Bengal was real as the tea industry has been the backbone of the economy in the region.
"In the tea sector, workers are paid in cash mostly and a paucity of it is bound to have an impact. In general there is a rise in unemployment and tea is no exception. This means, there will be less demand in the region and the overall economy would suffer," explained the professor who did not wish to be named.
Over the last month or so, the management of the gardens and the district administration explored various means - ranging from seeking special permission from the RBI to ensure cash delivery at the gardens to opening fresh bank accounts of the workers -- to ensure that the impact of the cash crunch was minimum on the tea gardens.
But the last evening's development at the Tirrihannah tea garden, which is very close to the Bagdogra airport, proved that the efforts did little to ease the problem.
As far as Tirrihannah was concerned, Sumit Ghosh, the secretary of the Terai branch of the ITA, said that he had heard that the management had left the garden.
"On Thursday evening we received a general notice signed by Tirrihannah manager, Amlan Kusum Roy, that said that the workers were had become very agitated due to the non-payment of wages. The workers demonstrated before the garden office on December 7 and shouted abuse at the management. They also stopped the despatch of made tea from the garden factory," Roy said.
He said that he had tried to contact the management but failed.
Gautan Ghosh, the general secretary of the Citu-affiliated, Chai Kaman Mazdoor Union put the blame on the management for the situation in the garden. "The Tirrihannah has not made a single payment since the announcement on November 8 on the note ban. There was no agitation and workers did not prevent the despatch of made tea. The management used the cash crisis as an excuse to shut down the garden. We are afraid that if this crisis continues many other gardens will also do the same," Ghosh said.
Inttuc district president, Arup Ratan Ghosh, also blamed the garden management.
[Source: Telegraph]
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