Kolkata: The 115-year-old Jungpana Tea Estate, whose brew is considered one of the world’s finest, suspended work indefinitely on Thursday due to labour unrest.
According to the tea garden’s management, local leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)-led Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union made a series of demands, and were threatening officials, forcing them to shut down.
“We have had to order a work suspension due to labour issues — something which had never happened before at the tea estate,” Shantanu Kejriwal, estate owner, said. “We are worried about the security of our workers, but at the same time we cannot be pressurised to accept some illegal demands of the union.”
“The labour unrest is not due to non-payment of wages, gratuity or provident funds or irregular rationing system. Union leaders want some of the garden labourers to be inducted into the management payroll with a promotion as staff, which will affect the viability of the garden and hence it is unacceptable,” Kejriwal added.
Kejriwal said the management offered to talk to the union to break the stalemate to no avail.
“We had asked the union leaders to meet the management and officials of the Darjeeling Tea Association and offered to hold talks outside the estate so that they don’t feel threatened in any way. But the local union has not been cooperating. No institution can exist without some form of discipline,” he said.
The garden, located on the slopes of the Kurseong sub-division spread over more than 78 acres and with a workforce of 260, has been with the Kejriwal family for more than five decades. The tea estate originally belonged to the British tea planter, Henry Lennox, who started the plantation in 1899. Subsequently, it was taken over by the Ranas of Nepal, and then was sold to the Kejriwals.
Jungpana tea needs no introduction to the connoisseurs of the drink. It is the favourite tea of Fortnum & Mason, popularly referred to as the Queen’s grocer and one of the bestsellers at France’s historic gourmet tea brand, Mariage Freres. Swiss multinational, Nestle, too has an arrangement with the estate for its special brew.
In the last fiscal year, the estate produced 36,000kg of prime tea and has been consistently fetching good prices for the past few years in the international market.
The closure of the estate will have a serious effect on the brand and the industry in the hills of West Bengal especially at a time when reports of deaths due to starvation and malnutrition are been reported from the area.
“This will be a serious blow to the very brand that Jungpana, and most importantly, Darjeeling [have made for themselves] especially at a time when the tea industry is undergoing such a serious crisis, where numerous tea gardens have been closed due to lack of economic viability. Everyone must get involved to ensure that the industry doesn’t die due to personal egos,” said an official of the Darjeeling Tea Association.
Sources indicate that GJM leader Bimal Gurung has personally intervened to ensure that the garden opens immediately and has asked the union to stop its agitation.
Source: gulfnews.com/news/world/india/india-115-year-old-tea-estate-shut-down-due-to-labour-unrest-1.1366482
