Darjeeling: The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has announced that it will disburse financial relief to workers of four closed tea gardens in its jurisdiction who are not covered under the Financial Assistance to Workers of Locked Out Industries (FAWLOI) scheme before the festive season.
The decision follows a meeting between tea garden trade unions and GTA officials in Darjeeling on Thursday. Recently, the West Bengal Labour Department directed tea gardens to pay a 20 per cent bonus to workers ahead of the festive season.
While operational gardens have begun disbursing bonus, workers of closed estates remain excluded.
Though some gardens are covered by FAWLOI, irregularities in payments have also been reported. GTA Chief Anit Thapa had earlier met Labour Minister Malay Ghatak to push for the regularisation of FAWLOI in the hills, stressing that closed garden workers needed urgent financial assistance before the festival season.
With four estates outside the scheme’s purview, several political parties, including the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front, demanded that GTA tap into its Covid Relief Fund, previously used for similar disbursals. “We have decided to distribute relief to the closed tea gardens that do not come under the FAWLOI scheme. Trade union representatives in the relief disbursal committee can work with GTA officials to finalise the process immediately,” Thapa had stated on Wednesday.
Following this, a meeting was held on Thursday at the Gorkha Ranga Mancha Bhawan in Darjeeling. “Most trade union representatives attended. It was decided that 1,933 workers of Singtom, Pandam, Peshok and Kalej Valley estates will receive relief.
However, the exact amount is undecided as only around Rs. 7 lakh remains in the corpus. We have requested GTA to add funds so that at least Rs. 4,000 can be given per worker,” said S.K. Lama of the Himalayan Plantation Workers Union (GNLF-affiliated).
JB Tamang of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha’s affiliated union added: “The GTA will meet soon to finalise the amount. Relief will be distributed before the
festival season.”