Tea planters’ association to slash wages

Tea planters’ association to slash wages

23 March 2012

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 23 MARCH: The North Bengal Small Tea Planters Association is threatening to slash the wages of workers who do not labour for eight hours and pluck at least 26 kg of green leaves, a decision that is likely to cause conflict with the workers.
A few months ago, the association introduced a new pay structure following an agreement involving the state, the unions and the planters in the Terai-Dooars region. To earn their daily Rs 85 workers are now supposed to deliver at least 26 kg. They can get another 50 paise per kg over that mark. 
Some workers, however, have not been cooperating, the planters complain: They have not been working for eight hours, and they have been delivering closer to 15 kg than 26 kg per day. The small planters in North Dinajpur, a non-traditional tea belt, are facing huge losses, said association secretary Nitai Majumdar. So the association has decided that, starting 1 April, it will pay workers on a pro-rata basis if they don't put in their eight hours and deliver their 26 kg.
The planters fear they will face unrest when they withhold wages. In order to resolve the problem amicably, they decided to seek help from the union leaders and tell the district administration about the matter.
More than 50 small tea planters convened a meeting with senior union leaders at Chopra in North Dinajpur yesterday and asked them to help resolve the crisis. Union leaders from both the Intuc and the Citu asked the planters not to take such drastic steps hastily, and promised to talk to workers to resolve the crisis.
Intuc-affiliated National Union of Plantation Workers district secretary Ashok Roy said his organisation would look into the planters allegations against the tea workers. "After meeting with the NBSTPA leaders we have sought time and decided to interact with the workers in some places," Mr Roy said. "We will try to pacify the irate workers to resolve the crisis."
Citu North Dinajpur district secretariat member Karik Shil said his organisation plans to start meeting with workers to try to deal with the situation. "We will hold a meeting with workers beginning on 26 March," he said. "The first meeting will be held at Chopra, where we will interact with the workers and try to resolve the crisis."
The district administration faced law-and-order problem in 2006 when small tea planters issued closure notices in all the tea plantation areas in Chopra and Islampur area in North Dinajpur district. All small tea plantations were closed for nine days before then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya intervened.
Paddy farmers complain of inadequate purchasing camps
RAIGANJ, 23 MARCH: The paddy farmers are being deprived of the state-fixed support price for their produce in the absence of adequate number of purchasing camps in north Dinajpur district. A group of officials of the district food and supply have admitted that they failed to organise satisfactory number of camps for purchasing paddy at subsidised rate from the farmers.  To protest against the alleged apathy, the district Youth Congress members and members of Sara Bharat Kishak Sabha will launch a movement soon at block levels. According to the officials the farmers harvested their crops around three months ago. “We set a target to procure 90,000 metric ton of paddy from the farmers at subsidised rate. But we were able to collect only 55,000 metric ton. Till date 36 camps have been organised in the district. In some blocks, only one or two camps were held,” a senior official said.
The secretary of the district unit of Sara Bharat Kishak Sabha, Mr Dilip Das, said the farmers were being compelled to resort to distress sales at a price much lower than the state-fixed rate because of the absence of adequate number of camps. “We demand that the district food and supply department arrange more such camps. If they fail we will launch a movement,” he said. The Raiganj Youth Congress committee president, Mr Manas Ghosh, said they had staged an agitation nearly a month ago demanding that the district controller of food and supply take initiatives to collect at least 1 lakh metric ton of paddy from the farmers. “But till date the number of camps is not satisfactory. We will start agitation in all the nine blocks of the district if the department does not come up with a solution soon,” he said. sns