West Bengal govt mounts pressure on Duncans' chief

Pay dues or surrender the gardens, says minister

The West Bengal government is mounting pressure on Duncans chairman G P Goenka to address the tea gardens crisis in the Dooars.

“Either clear due wages at 13 closed tea gardens in Dooars or give up the gardens to the government,” was the message from a Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting which held late on Friday evening. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee convened the meeting in the wake of the ongoing crisis at Duncans’ gardens that has put survival of nearly a lakh people in jeopardy.

“We’ll continue to put pressure on Duncans management. There’s a backlog of around Rs 15 crore in overdue wages, PF, gratuity, ration, and utility bills. The CM has made it clear that the group will have to come clean on its position regarding payment of dues or surrender its gardens,” a GoM member said from Kolkata.

Sources in tea gardens, however, believe the total amount in overdue wages stands at more than Rs 33 crore.  The GoM member further said that the government has also decided to exert pressure on the management of other tea gardens facing similar problems.

The meeting also discussed possibilities of bringing smaller tea gardens under one umbrella to streamline the process, ensuring social and financial security to thousands of workers. The member also pointed out that while just Duncans employed around 25,000 people in its 15 gardens in Dooars, there are around 154 big and small tea gardens, taking the total number of tea workers and their dependents to a few lakhs.

“The smaller tea gardens sell their yield to big companies like Goodricke and Andrew Yule, who own several large gardens in Dooars. Most of these smaller gardens don’t come under the purview of the Tea Plantation Act. If brought under one umbrella and introduced to the cooperative system, workers will benefit,” he said.

While the move will be welcomed by trade unions, they are taking the meeting’s outcome with a pinch of salt, until the government manages to show some results, said Abhijit Mazumdar, working president of Terai Sangrami Cha Shramik Union. “How can the government take over Duncans’ gardens when they are under BIFR since 2006? If the government actually manages to create a blueprint for a productive model where workers’ cooperatives can run gardens, it will be a welcome change but all such attempts have failed. Instead, the government should arrest Goenka and attach his property to raise funds. The proceeds from sale of his properties can be used to re-invest in his gardens and clear overdue wages,” he said.

Industry insiders pointed out that the government had to sell five of its gardens in April, citing “inability”. It also divested its stakes in the five gardens under West Bengal Tea Development Corporation, selling the three in Darjeeling for Rs 31 crore to Sanjay Bansal’s Ambootia Group and two in Dooars for Rs 7.3 crore to industrialist Ashok Garg. The government, however, ensured that the gardens’ workforce of nearly 3,500 was not retrenched. Like Mazumdar and other unionists, industry insiders are not convinced the government’s plans would work.