Terai Dooars News-ABAVP calls indefinite strike in tea gardens

JALPAIGURI: Demanding a hike in the wage of the tea labourers, the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP) has called for an indefinite bandh in the tea belt of the Dooars and Terai starting from Tuesday. The decision was taken in a meeting held at Malbazar on Sunday. The decision of the ABAVP could already be sensed as the tribal body had threatened to do likewise after the tripartite meeting held in Kolkata on 5 August on the revision of wage had failed to yield any result.

The Coordination Committee for tea Plantation Workers and Defence Committee for Tea Workers' Rights, the bodies comprising 18 labour unions each, have also called for a general strike on 12 August besides calling for a bandh in the tea gardens on 10 and 11 August. They also demand for a hike in the wage of the tea workers.

"We had decided to observe a bandh on 28 July, which we called off later after we were given assurance on the wage revision. But now it seems that nobody's really interested to look into the interest of the tea workers. So, we have decided to bring the tea industry into a stalemate unless our demands are met," said John Barla, president of ABAVP's Dooars Terai Regional Unit.


The labour wing of the tribal body - Progressive Tea Workers' Union (PTWU) - has already enforced an embargo over dispatch of processed tea in the tea gardens of the Dooars and Terai, which is said to have affected the industry badly. It is for sure that if the bandh is enforced, the industry will suffer further. Moreover, the ABAVP has made it clear that transportation along the roads and rail movements in the Dooars and Terai will also come under the purview of the bandh.

"After much effort, the tea industry has been able to overcome the hard time that it went through from the late Nineties. Such bandhs are definitely going to spell disaster for the industry. The problem has to be settled through dialogues. For the sake of the industry we would like to request the tribal body and the labour unions to call of their movement," a tea official said.

There are more than three lakh workers in the tea gardens of the Dooars and Terai who earn Rs.67 a day against their daily labour. The labour unions have demanded this daily wage to be increased to Rs.130. But the garden managements want to give the labourers a hike of Rs.24 in three phases which the labour unions are not ready to accept.
There are 153 tea gardens in the Dooars and 42 gardens in the Terai which respectively produce 180 million kg and 50 million kg of tea annually. The present market rate of processed tea is between Rs.120 and Rs.130. Being highly perishable in nature, if detained for long, the processed tea in the garden factories will lose its quality following which it will be difficult to get buyer for that. In addition to that an indefinite bandh would mean no more production, which will again hit the industry.