CPI-M takes dig at Mamata over tea-estate workers' deaths

Left Front chairman Biman Bose on Wednesday took a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for failing to visit a closed tea estate following the deaths of workers allegedly due to malnutrition.

Banerjee visited Jalpaiguri district in north Bengal on Wednesday, but her itinerary did not include a visit to the Duncan's Bagrakote tea garden, where, according to Bose, 27 workers died of malnutrition.

"She went to north Bengal near the vicinity of the Bagrakote tea garden. However, she did not visit the garden," he told media persons here.

Bose said his party has decided to mobilise trade unions in north Bengal to help the workers and address their concerns.

"Left Front-affiliated trade unions have a role to play here. The unions need to talk to the workers and the stakeholders in the trade and thereafter plan a definitive way forward," he said.

On Banerjee's comment that the state would take over the tea estate in case the Duncans were unable to manage it, Bose said: "There can't be any solution by talking this way."

The veteran Communist leader said the state government needs to urgently stop these deaths.