Terai Dooars News-Didi warns CPM on tea garden strike

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday warned the CPM against fanning unrest in the tea gardens of Dooars and Terai. "Just because they are out of power, the CPM has started their politics of bandhs. If needed, a law will be enacted to stop it. We won't do it (strikes and bandhs) ourselves. That's our resolve. And we won't let anybody politically motivate an unrest," the chief minister said, dubbing the shutdown as a "phenomenon".
This was the second time Mamata has reacted to the tea garden strike. If her tone was mellowed on Monday when she appealed to the people of Terai-Dooars to call off the strike, she responded sternly on Friday to the continuing impasse: "We shall wait for a few more days ... There is a political reason behind the closure. Everybody seems to be calling strikes," she said.
On Thursday, state labour minister Purnendu Basu had said his government was in no mood to compromise with the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP) that caused the strike. "Discussions and agitation can't happen at the same time," he said, inviting the strikers for talks, but only after they call off the agitation.
Twenty-four hours later, the chief minister reiterated the government's stand, pin-pointing her determination to take on the CPM. "Just because they are not in power, the CPM is instigating unrest in the tea gardens. For the last 34 years, they have called bandhs at the drop of a hat. When the party was in power, tea gardens would be perpetually closed," the chief minister said.
Only on Tuesday, Mamata had appealed to the strikers to call off their agitation, but refrained from referring to the CPM. On Friday, she said menacingly, "We shall do everything to stop the agitation."
Tea gardens were shut across the Terai and Dooars for the fourth day on Friday as two apex bodies of around 30 trade unions launched a strike to seek a hike in workers' wages. The trade unions which are enforcing the shutdown have warned that any settlement reached between the planters and the ABAVP-affiliated labour wing on the wage hike would not be acceptable to them.
The chief minister said, "We cannot jeopardize the existence of one crore people just for one closed tea garden. They can't be deprived of their daily meal."
-TOI