Duncan’s Goenka meets Chief Secy on tea garden issue

Duncan Group of Industries chairman GP Goenka on Thursday met Bengal Chief Secretary Basudeb Bandyopadhyay and briefed him on the current scenario of the closed tea gardens in northern part of the state.

Duncan Group owns a number of tea gardens in the state.

“I met the Chief Secretary to brief on the current state of the tea garden issue. I need operational help rather than financial to run the garden,” Goenka said after meeting Bandyopadhyay on Thursday evening.

According to a top Nabanna source, Goenka said that “out of the seven tea gardens notified by Tea Board, Beerpara Garden is operational now with around 1,500 workers”.

Goenka, the source said, has also claimed that some amount of arrears were paid to the workers there.

The industrialist, during the meeting, has also said that another tea garden Dhumchipara will hopefully be operational next week with recruitments of new managerial staff having been completed.

Other five gardens were also not officially closed, but normal operations have not started because of vacancies for new managerial staff which would likely be done in phases.