<p>With more than five lakh tea garden workers across North Bengal hit hard by demonetisation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stepped in to ensure that these labourers receive their due wages soon.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Banerjee, who has emerged a vocal critic of the Centre’s move of scrapping old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes, asked district authorities to help owners of tea estates. Seeing that tea workers, who get paid daily or weekly, have not been paid wages since last week, the state government stepped in to sort out the crisis in the four tea growing districts of North Bengal. In a bid to smoothen the process, Banerjee instructed district magistrates of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and North Dinajpur to allow managements of tea companies to use bank accounts of the district administration concerned.<br /><br />Around 3.5 lakh regular workers and nearly 1.5 lakh casual workers across 283 tea gardens in North Bengal receive cash payments. <br /><br />But these workers did not receive wages since demonetisation. Garden owners said the workers get paid between Rs 122 and Rs 133 and they were unable to source enough Rs 100 notes. <br /><br />Besides, there was also a cap on bank withdrawals since November 9. Officials explained that the garden owners would deposit the money required to pay wages via cheque or wire transfer into specified bank accounts, along with details of workers and wages. <br /><br />The district magistrate would withdraw the amount in cash and hand it to the owners to pay wages.<br /> “The district magistrates are holding meetings with bank officials to facilitate the process since a lot of cash is required,” an official said.<br /></p>
<p>With more than five lakh tea garden workers across North Bengal hit hard by demonetisation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stepped in to ensure that these labourers receive their due wages soon.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Banerjee, who has emerged a vocal critic of the Centre’s move of scrapping old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes, asked district authorities to help owners of tea estates. Seeing that tea workers, who get paid daily or weekly, have not been paid wages since last week, the state government stepped in to sort out the crisis in the four tea growing districts of North Bengal. In a bid to smoothen the process, Banerjee instructed district magistrates of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and North Dinajpur to allow managements of tea companies to use bank accounts of the district administration concerned.<br /><br />Around 3.5 lakh regular workers and nearly 1.5 lakh casual workers across 283 tea gardens in North Bengal receive cash payments. <br /><br />But these workers did not receive wages since demonetisation. Garden owners said the workers get paid between Rs 122 and Rs 133 and they were unable to source enough Rs 100 notes. <br /><br />Besides, there was also a cap on bank withdrawals since November 9. Officials explained that the garden owners would deposit the money required to pay wages via cheque or wire transfer into specified bank accounts, along with details of workers and wages. <br /><br />The district magistrate would withdraw the amount in cash and hand it to the owners to pay wages.<br /> “The district magistrates are holding meetings with bank officials to facilitate the process since a lot of cash is required,” an official said.<br /></p>
