Darjeeling, June 6: The Gorkhaland
Territorial Administration at a meeting with representatives of the
Darjeeling Tea industry today proposed a merger of its two planters’
associations.
The meeting was
convened at the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club and even though Trilok Dewan,
the Darjeeling MLA, said the “general view” among the planters was for a
merger of the Darjeeling Tea Association and the Darjeeling Indian Tea
Association, sources said the GTA’s proposal would not be accepted.
Dewan said: “A
proposal for the merger of the two associations was made by Shri Bimal
Gurung. The general view was that there should be one association as
Darjeeling has its own brand value. I would not say a consensus has been
reached as the respective associations have to revert the issue to the
higher-ups.”
Around 26 of the
86 tea gardens in Darjeeling broke from the Darjeeling Tea Association
to form the Darjeeling Indian Tea Association in 2010.
Any merger of the
associations would increase the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s clout in the
tea industry, one of the two sectors driving the hill economy. The other
is tourism.
A source, who was
present at the meeting, said: “A request was definitely made by the
honourable chief executive of GTA, Shri Bimal Gurung (who was present at
the meeting), that the two associations should merge. The inside story
is that the two associations have been formed for the betterment of the
industry and there is no consensus on merger of the associations.”
The source did not
want to let on which tea association he was a member of, given the
sensitive nature of the issue and Gurung’s insistence on merger of the
two industry associations.
Of late, Gurung
has been stressing on the need to merge the two associations but many
planters feel this would be a transgression on the planters’ choice to
choose their own association.
A planter, who did
not want to be named, said the Morcha leadership was inclined to favour
one particular association. He would not name which.
“All of us are working for the betterment of the industry and no sides should be taken,” said the planter.
Planters of both the associations said they were ready to work with the GTA for improving the lot of the tea workers.
“The GTA stressed
the need to focus on corporate social responsibility and both the
associations have no problems working with the GTA to set up a hospital
(for garden workers) as desired by the GTA,” said a source.
The Morcha
leadership has also demanded that the daily wage of workers be increased
next year, when the three-year wage revision is due, from Rs 90 a day
which they get now. “The GTA also wants to start manufacturing compost
and wants us to buy from them. They also want local people to be given
preference while employing staff in the gardens. All these issues can be
worked out, except for the merger,” said a planter.
The Darjeeling Tea
industry has 55,000 permanent workers, apart from employing 16,000
temporary hands during the plucking season.
The Telegraph
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