Tea garden strike put on hold

DARJEELING: The Darjeeling TeraiDooars Plantation Labour Union (DTDPLU) on Wednesday announced that it would keep on hold the indefinite pen-down strike from July 25 in the five state-run gardens since the moral code of conduct for the panchayat polls is in place.
said that it would keep on hold its threat to start indefinite pen down strike from July 25, in the five state government run tea gardens because of the moral code of conduct in place for the panchayat election.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-affiliated trade union had started a series of pen-down strikes from July 15 in the Rangmukh-Cedar, Rangeyrung and Pandam tea gardens run by the West Bengal Tea Development Corporation (WBTDC), to demand for release of workers' pending salary and arrears.
On Wednesday, the DTDPLU general secretary Suraj Subba said, "We have decided not to go ahead with the pen-down strike from Thursday keeping in view the prevailing code of conduct because of the panchayat election in Jalpaiguri."
The Mohua and Hilla tea gardens of Dooars fall under the Jalpaiguri district which will go to polls on Thursday.
However, the Hills even though in North Bengal will not conduct the panchayat poll due to technical reasons.
According to the trade union members, the accumulated arrears and salary of the sub-staff, superior staff and labours amount to Rs 2.15 crore which is yet to be disbursed since the last 27 months. The implementation period was from May, 2011.
The DTDLPU members have also threatened to hold gate meetings from August if their demand is not met by the WBTDC. "We will wait for the election process to be completed and then launch our next phase of agitation. We will also hold gate meetings in each and every tea garden under our union for two hours every day. This is besides the pen down strike," said Subba.
When reminded that the Mohua and Hilla tea garden was not under the Darjeeling Hills jurisdiction, the trade union leader said, "The Mohua and Hilla tea gardens are under the WBTDC and anything that will be decided for the Hills will also apply to the plains. Moreover, we have got a sizeable representation in these two gardens."
On July 22, the assistant labor commissioner had convened a meeting with the trade union, garden management and the Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA), an umbrella organization of 87 tea gardens located in the Hills, to persuade the agitators to lift their strike. However, with no concrete solution coming forth from the meeting, the DTDPLU had instead threatened to intensify its agitation from next month. "We will organize road blockades in the entire Hills and also stage fast on to death programmes from August if our demands are not met by the state government," Prashant Pradhan, the DTDPLU assistant secretary said after the meeting in the Darjeeling district collectorate's office.