Darjeeling, 8 August : The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) affiliated tea garden workers of all
the 87 tea plantations of the Hills have decided to offer their one day
daily wage to the party for to carry out various programmes of the
ongoing Gorkhaland agitation. Also, the locals of Sadar-I constituency
of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) have contributed
Rs 50,000 in cash and 1.45 quintals of rice to the party. The GJMM chief
Mr Bimal Gurung said this to reporters today at the party office
located at Singhamari, Darjeeling.
He said: “We are very grateful to the support conferred to the party by the tea garden workers and the locals of Sadar-I constituency. The fund will be utilised to further steam the ongoing Gorkhaland agitation,” said Mr Bimal Gurung adding that, “The party will distribute the rice to the poor families.”
It can be mentioned here that the tea plantations, including the Cinchona plantation, has been kept away from the purview of the ongoing strike that completed 35 days.(SNS)
He said: “We are very grateful to the support conferred to the party by the tea garden workers and the locals of Sadar-I constituency. The fund will be utilised to further steam the ongoing Gorkhaland agitation,” said Mr Bimal Gurung adding that, “The party will distribute the rice to the poor families.”
It can be mentioned here that the tea plantations, including the Cinchona plantation, has been kept away from the purview of the ongoing strike that completed 35 days.(SNS)
Tea garden wages to fund agitation - Morcha union collects day’s pay from estate hands, rice collection on in town
Darjeeling, Sept. 8: The Gorkha
Janmukti Morcha’s trade union has started collecting a day’s wage from
tea garden workers across the Darjeeling hills to raise a fund for the
Gorkhaland agitation.
The hills have 87 tea gardens and
they together employ 65,000 workers, most of whom are members of the
Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union. The
daily wage of a worker is Rs 90.
The union is expected to raise around Rs 60 lakh.
Bimal Gurung, the
president of the Morcha, while receiving 1,400kg of rice and Rs 50,000
collected by the outfit’s Darjeeling Sadar-1 constituency unit, today
said: “We are grateful to everyone as our people are voluntarily
contributing both in cash and kind. I have been told that tea garden
workers will also be donating a day’s wage and that our trade union has
already passed a resolution to help in the collection.”
Rs 50,000 has been collected by a Darjeeling unit of the Morcha. It has not been collected from tea garden workers.
Suraj Subba, the
general secretary of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour
Union, said the workers were voluntarily contributing wages. “Workers
are voluntarily coming and donating their wages to our local units.
There is no call for a fund collection. Our union is just co-ordinating
the collection,” he said.
This is the first
time that the Morcha is collecting funds from the people. The GNLF in
1986 had collected such funds from people during its Gorkhaland
agitation days.
Sources in the
Morcha said apart from the Darjeeling Sadar-I unit of the Morcha, other
constituencies were also expected to collect funds and rice from the
common people. Students are also collecting donations in cuss jars for
the statehood agitation, though on a small scale.
The collection is
likely to cover even the cinchona plantation workers, whose daily wage
is Rs 183. The cinchona plantations employ around 5,000 people. Both the
cinchona and tea plantations were kept out of the agitation’s purview.
The collections
are going on at a time the state government is purportedly tightening
its noose around people who are perceived to be financing the Morcha.
Police sources
said a businessman, Ashoke Periwal, had been arrested from Kalimpong
last night for showing a black flag to north Bengal development minister
Gautam Deb on February 12 and for allegedly vandalising a police
outpost. The sources said the police were keeping a watch over Periwal
for allegedly funding the Morcha.
Periwal’s lawyer said he was arrested in Siliguri, not Kalimpong.
Petition in SC
Roshan Giri, the general secretary
of the Morcha, said that the organisation had filed a special leave
petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the August 14 high court
order, terming the ghar bhitra janata (stay-at home) programme illegal.(The Telegraph)
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