Mamata should visit plantations

‘Mamata should visit plantations’

11 October 2011

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 11 OCT: The veteran trade union leader associated with the coordination committee of tea plantations workers’ unions in north Bengal, Mr Chitta Dey, believes that chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee should travel around tea plantations to know the exact situation in the tea belt where the workers are being deprived of their legitimate claims.
Reacting to Miss Banerjee’s interaction with tea workers in plantations on her way to the Hills yesterday, Mr Dey said: “If she wants to know the real situation, she should conduct a survey to know the plight of thousands of tea workers. We can make arrangements for that.”
Mr Dey said the state government had not been able to hike tea workers’ wages despite several tripartite meetings held this year due to rigidity of planters.
“Though the state labour commissioner has called another tripartite meeting in Kolkata on 13 October, I don’t think the state would be able to persuade them to accept the demands of the trade unions,” Mr Dey said, adding, “the dialogue would put an end to the demand of hiking tea workers’ wages from Rs 67 to over Rs 90 a day from the first year.”
“The chief minister should know that a permanent worker in Darjeeling Hills is receiving Rs 90 a day. But the workers in the Terai and the Dooars are still receiving Rs 67. She should know how the Labour Act is being violated in the tea belt,” said Mr Dey.
“Tea planters have been claiming that they spend at least Rs 123 a day for a tea worker providing ration and other facilities. But in practice the planters are paying only Rs 89 for a permanent tea worker,” he added.
According to him, the food supplies are not fit for human consumption, system of rationing is irregular in many tea plantations, tea workers do not have pucca quarters in many tea plantations, they live under tarpaulin sheets, and over 54 per cent women workers suffer from several diseases, including gastro-enteritis due to lack of purified drinking water supply but there is no proper dispensary under the guidance of registered doctor in many tea plantations.
“Miss Banerjee should know that the planters have not yet recruited 5,000 more workers following an agreement signed in 1999 during the tenure of former chief minister late Jyoti Basu,” he added.
The Trinamul Congress-backed trade union AITTUC Jalpaiguri district president, Mr Joachim Buxla, who was also a former RSP leader and MP, said: “The chief minister has planned to visit this region to study the present situation and to bring overall development, including in the tea belt.”
“I think that tea workers’ wages would be settled through negotiation with planters. We demanded Rs 130 for a permanent tea worker a day. The matter would be finalised if the planters agree to pay at least Rs 92 for a permanent tea worker a day,” Mr Buxla said.