A grave situation that could have triggered violence in yet another tea estate was defused in the nick of time on Monday when the new management of Raipur Tea Estate finally, conceded to angry workers’ demands for ‘talab’ or weekly wage. The sprawling 2,400 acre Raipur TE is located 12 km from Jalpaiguri town and is one of the oldest tea gardens in the Dooars.
Violence isn’t uncommon in the tea belts of Bengal and Assam, where low wages, garden closures, pangs of hunger and malnutrition deaths have combined to form a powder keg time and again. Earlier this year in March, the assistant manager of Dalmore Tea Estate in Birpara, Ajit Panwar, was allegedly hacked to death by a restive worker over a feud. Last year in upper Assam, the owner of a tea estate was allegedly set ablaze over wage disputes. Police in Jalpaiguri are relieved that Monday’s situation was contained before it flared up further.
«The manager of the tea estate refused to pay the wages, triggering angry demonstration by workers on Monday evening. Some came with ‘jhurni’ (dagger) and ‘lathi’ (wooden staff) and raised slogans against the manager. By late evening, the situation was going out of hand with some baying for the manager’s blood. Thankfully an unsavory incident was avoided when the management agreed to pay after dilly-dallying for five hours,» recounted Rajaram Rajak, a worker at Raipur TE.
While the workers may have had their say on Monday, the threat of violence has plunged the tea estate and its 550 permanent and 3,000-odd casual workers into uncertainty within days of its ‘reopening’. Shut for nearly 10 months, it opened informally on July 10 after a Chennai-based businessman agreed to take over the property.
The status of the garden though remains shrouded in mystery. District-level leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress claim it has reopened. But the district magistrate and assistant labour commissioner say they are unaware of the development. The contradictions has left garden workers puzzled and wondering if they are now pawns in the political game.
«The announcement of the garden takeover came immediately after the media glare following four starvation deaths in the garden this June. Three ministers visited and assured measures to improve our lot. Steps were taken to streamline distribution of subsidized rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene. Then Trinamool Congress district president Sourabh Chakraborty announced that the garden was being reopened. But with the administration staying away, we wonder if this is just a stop-gap measure to divert people’s attention from the plight in tea gardens in the Dooars,» retired tea garden worker Gandur Oraon, echoing the apprehension of others.
It is in this backdrop of uncertainty that the situation turned volatile on the eve of Eid, a holiday at the garden. The workers’ grudge against estate manager Charan Mohan Singh, who has been retained by the new owner, fuelled the anger further. They accuse Singh, who has been at the garden since 2011, of mismanagement and the 10-month closure. Rattled by the angry mob, Singh and other officials of the tea estate stayed away on Tuesday.
Rumours of another shutdown in the garden that has already witnessed three closures in a decade are rife. Many workers say the garden has been shut for 12 years with only sporadic activity and irregular wage payments to simply keep it off the list of closed gardens in the belt. «Unless the factory is functional, we don’t consider the garden to be open,» said worker Jaybir Oraon.
While that was unlikely to happen anytime soon given the estimated investment of Rs 10 crore required to revive the unit that has been shut for 12 years, the workers’ demonstration on Monday may just have pushed the revival plans in the back-burner.
When the garden opened on Wednesday morning, officials seemed hesitant to resume duty, uncertain of how the day would pan out. But it eased in a while like it usually does.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Raipur-tea-estate-still-on-the-boil/articleshow/39317777.cms
Raipur tea estate still on the boil
