By IANS,
Kolkata: With the closure of several tea estates in West Bengal leading to destitution, their workers, led by a section of trade unions, Saturday demanded they be included in the below poverty line (BPL) list.
New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), a centre of independent trade unions and workers from three closed tea gardens of West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district met state government officials and demanded an agency be set upto monitor the closure of the tea gardens so as to enable the government take requisite rehabilitation measures.
“Our main demand is that the workers of the tea gardens should be declared as BPL so that after closure, various government schemes could be extended to them,” said Anuradha Talwar of one of the trade unions.
Of the three tea estates, Dheklapara has remained closed for over a decade now, the Dalmore tea garden was again closed since July after being reopened in January, while the Ramjhora estate was reopened in October 2010 after being closed for almost seven years.
“With no livelihood, medical infrastructure and even drinking water, the workers have been facing destitution for long with as many as 15 of them dying due to starvation and malnutrition,” alleged Talwar.
Unless the BPL initiative was extended, there would be more such deaths, he said.
“The tea gardens do not get closed overnight. There are symptoms of closure like salary and provident fund backlogs, frequent lock outs, etc. If there is a monitoring agency then it can decide that a particular tea estate is on the verge of closure and the government then can initiate the rehabilitation measures,” added Talwar.
The workers, who met several government officials including state Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee to apprise them of their plight, said they have been assured that necessary steps would be taken.
“Ever since the closure there have been many deaths in the families of the workers. As a last resort we now want to run the estate and the government has said that they will help us in doing so,” said Rajesh Vishwakarma, a worker of a closed garden.
“The government has been sympathetic to our plight and we hope that these words transform into deeds otherwise we do not have any other choice but to commit suicide which is still a better option than dying due to malnutrition or starvation,” said Sina Oraon who worked in the Dheklapara tea estate.