West Bengal Labour department soon check facilities provided to tea garden workers

NewsBharati 11-Nov-2017

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Darjeeling, November 11: Tea gardens of North Bengal are worldwide famous for the quality tea they produce but the inside story of tea gardens are very disappointing. Closures of tea gardens, suicide of labors are not so rare incidents. Hence West Bengal state labor department has planned for a survey to find out if workers are getting facilities as per the provisions of the Plantation Labour Act 196.

As per planning, two tea-estates will be covered each day for the survey. The total number of workers and managerial staff, the status of production in the past couple of years, the kind of medical facility available and the quality of drinking water will be checked.

The report of an earlier survey in 2012 was very poor. Among 302 tea gardens, only 10 had qualified doctors to provide proper treatment to workers. Even 150 tea gardens almost did not have any treatment facility.

“We are yet to receive the funds necessary to complete the survey. Besides, there was trouble in the Darjeeling hills (over the statehood agitation). So, there is a little bit of delay to start the survey. We have already completed preliminary works and are just waiting for the funds. We will mainly find out if workers are getting facilities as per the provisions of the Plantation Labour Act 1965,” Chandan Dasgupta, the joint labor commissioner, said.

Tea Garden North Bengal Workers Labour Act Survey