Siliguri, Aug. 2: Raipur Tea Estate, which has been closed for the past six years, is set to reopen tomorrow.
A tripartite agreement involving the government, trade union leaders and Amritpur Tea Co. Ltd was signed yesterday after the Debt Recovery Tribunal ordered the bank which had confiscated the keys and deeds of the garden to release them after its dues were paid.
The estate on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri town and 50km from here was abandoned by the management of Amritpur Tea Co. Ltd in 2003 because of shortage of funds. In 2005, it had opened for a month, only to shut again.
Aloke Chakraborty, the joint general secretary of the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers, said: “The management had borrowed money from the bank and since it could not repay it, the issue was pending before the Tribunal. The bank possessed the keys and deeds of the estate. We took up the matter with the management and started pursuing it.”
The Intuc union then pressured the management to clear the Rs 10 lakh that it owned the bank, following which the keys were handed over to the management by an order of the tribunal on July 17.
Yesterday at a meeting convened at the office of Rajat Pal, the deputy labour commissioner of Jalpaiguri, the tripartite agreement was signed.
“According to the agreement, not a single permanent worker, out of the 640, can be retrenched. Apart from provident fund and gratuity, the management will pay 60 per cent of the total wages and ration that have accumulated so far in three annual instalments, starting from the Puja this year,” Chakraborty said.
N.K. Basu, associated with the Indian Tea Planters’ Association who was present at yesterday’s meeting, said it was good that the initiatives had borne fruit. “The garden will reopen tomorrow and initially some token payments will be made to workers,” he said.
Carron in trouble
The management of Carron Tea Estate at Nagrakata block in Jalpaiguri has taken serious exception to the indefinite strike called by the Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) after some of their labour leaders were allegedly assaulted on Friday evening.
P.K. Basu, the managing director of Basu Tea Pvt Ltd that owns Carron, said: “Whatever happened on Friday was a political clash and has nothing to do with the management. The NUPW, however, has called an indefinite strike, which is adding to our already existing losses. If such situations prevail, we would be forced to take drastic steps.
Courtesy: The Telegraph |
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