Tea garden workers dying due to demonetisation: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that tea garden workers were "dying" in the aftermath of demonetisation and demanded the RBI restore and continue payments by the state government till March 2017.

"I demand RBI restore payments by our govt thru our DMs immdtly & continue till 03-17. Our hungry teagarden workers r dying due to NoteBandi," Banerjee said on Twitter.

Her comments came on a day the Trinamool Congress's legislators and senior state ministers organised a sit-in in front of the Reserve Bank of India office in Kolkata to protest the insufficient supply of new currency notes in the state.

Incidentally, RBI Governor Urjit Patel is in the city to attend the apex bank's central board meet on Thursday.

Banerjee, also the Trinamool supremo, accused the central government of discriminating between states with regards to disbursement of cash from RBI.

"It's shocking that CentralGovt is ruthlessly discriminating against Bengal & its toiling teagarden workers by starving them of cash wages while giving cash from RBI to BJP ruled state of Assam for tea garden workers.

"While both states started a similar payment model, suddenly Bengal's payments were cut off end of November. Our workers are starving," she said.

--IANS

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