Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman today visited two closed tea gardens in North Bengal along with senior officials of the Tea Board and West Bengal state government.
The Union Minister first went to Surendranagar tea garden and later visited the Red Bank tea garden in the district closed since 2003 and met with workers of closed tea gardens and representatives of the workers' unions.
Workers of Bandapani tea garden, also came to the Red Bank garden to meet the Minister and appraised her about the ground realities.
Highlighting their plights, the labour unions, including CITU, INTTUC, BMS and others, and workers told Sitharaman that they were getting rice at Rs two per kg since February last, but there was no water or electricity in the gardens.
"The sanitation system has crumbled due to lack of maintenance and health care facilities are virtually non-existent. We have urged the Union Minister to make arrangements for opening the closed tea gardens... We have no other demands," said Praveen Jha and Shanti Khesh of Red Bank tea garden.
During her interaction with the union members as well as the workers, Sitharaman said she had sought information from the West Bengal government on the ground realities and on allegations of starvation deaths and suicides.
"We have got a feedback from the state government and the matter has also been raised in the Parliament. We will discuss the issue of reopening of the gardens with the state government officials," she told the workers, declining any assurances on reopening of the closed tea gardens.
Sitharaman was scheduled to meet stakeholders of the tea industry tomorrow, which would be attended by Tea Board chairman Siddharth, North Bengal minister Gautam Deb and MPs S S Ahluwalia and Dasrath Tirkey as well as representatives of the Indian Tea Association.
