: “In Parliament, Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a package of Rs 1000 crore for tea workers. Let the BJP side first give an account of the Rs 1000 crore and then Union Minister of State John Barla will be heard,” Ganga Prashad Sharma, chairman of the Jaigaon Development Authority, stated.
Union Minister of State for Minority Development and Alipurduar BJP MP, John Barla, along with his supporters, faced police obstacles in front of the district administrative building, Dooars Kanya, on Wednesday. They sought a meeting with the District Magistrate of Alipurduar to address the issues of closed tea gardens in the district and various problems faced by tea workers.
Barla complained that he was denied access to the District Magistrate’s Chamber on the orders of the state government for political reasons. In protest, the Union Minister of State and his supporters staged a three-hour sit-in on the road in front of Dooars Kanya from 12:30 pm on Wednesday.
District Trinamool leader Ganga Prashad Sharma scoffed at the Union Minister’s sit-in programme, saying: “The MP of Alipurduar has returned to Alipurduar after many days and is now engaged in such drama. These theatrics will yield no results. People have already rejected their theatrics in the Panchayat elections. The state government has addressed the issues of tea plantation workers by introducing land lease, ambulances, and crèche programmes.
The BJP and its ministers have not taken any action for the betterment of tea garden workers except to give false assurances. Therefore, tea plantation workers place their trust in the state government and not the Union government.”