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The National Highway here has been blocked by the trade union representing the Darjeeling tea garden workers, as they have called for a 12-hour strike demanding a 20 per cent bonus for tea garden workers.
The agitated trade unions and workers said that the issue has been persisting for a long time and a solution is yet to be sought. Leader of a Trade Union, Suman Tamang, says, "This issue is not new; it is very old...Yesterday the fourth round of meetings was held in Shramik Bhavan but no solution came out of the meeting...All trade unions have called for a 12-hour strike...All political parties are supporting us." In March, tea growers also expressed their disappointment with the role of the centre in terms of its revival and urged the centre to address their plight. They said that Darjeeling tea is facing a crisis. The planters said that although the Centre had taken some measures for the small tea growers, like crop insurance, tea promotion, and financial packages, it lacked focus for the entire industry. The tea industry is the main economic backbone of Darjeeling in North Bengal as a whole. It is noted that the total tea production of India is around 1400 million kg every year, of which North Bengal contributes around 250 million kg of tea. More than five lakh workers are directly or indirectly involved in the industry. There are around 300 tea gardens in Darjeeling, Terai, and Dooars. Earlier on April this year, regarding the concerns raised by tea plantation workers, Subashish Roy, manager at the Arya Tea Estate in Darjeeling, said that currently they get Rs 250 as their daily wage, which has been fixed by the government, while earlier the wage used to be even below Rs 200. Amid this slump, Roy said that the industry is looking for alternate sources of income, like tea tourism. (ANI)
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