DARJEELING, 3 MAY: Senior Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist
(CPRM) leader Govind Chhetri today said the party would raise the demand
to the state government to increase tea workers’ wages while
celebrating the 195th birth anniversary of Karl Marx, the theoretical
founder of Communism, on 5 May in Darjeeling.
The meeting would
be held at Judge Bazaar in Darjeeling town. “The demand for wage hike
for the tea workers is in consonance with the Constitutional provisions
meant for the welfare of the tea plantation workers,” the CPRM leader
said.
Referring to the GTA Chief Bimal Gurung’s demand to hike
the minimum wages from Rs 90 to Rs 113, he said his party supported and
appreciated his stance on the matter.
“Yet, we feel he should
have demanded Rs 150 per day be given to the workers. This would be the
right demand, given the plight of the brew workers here in the Hills,”
Mr Chhetri said.
“The figure raised by Mr Gurung does not fit in
with the spiralling expenses involved in day-to-day living. It is the
right of the tea workers to demand at least Rs 150 per day,” he added.
Notably,
wages of the tea plantation workers are hiked every three years. Last
time in 2011 just before the state’s Assembly election, the minimum
wage was hiked from Rs 67 to 90.
statesman news service
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