‘70 crèches, 43 health centres to come up in tea gardens’

siliguri: For the convenience of the tea garden workers, the state government has taken initiative to build crèches and health centres in Tea garden areas. The tender process of the work has already started.

In this regard, a meeting of the Tea Advisory Council was held on Tuesday at Uttarkanya, the Branch Secretariat of West Bengal Government in the presence of Labour department minister Moloy Ghatak.

“The work will be conducted in three phases. The North Bengal Development Department (NBDD) has finalised the tender for the first phase of work. We chose the tea garden areas as these lands belong to the state government but have been leased out to the tea garden companies. We have requested the companies to provide us one acre of land from each tea garden to construct the crèches and health centers. Accordingly, they gave us the No Objection Certificate (NOC),” said the minister.

As many as 70 crèches and 43 health centres will be set up in three phases. In the first phase, a total of 24 crèches and 10 health centres will be constructed. Amongst them, six crèches and three health centres will be built at Alipurduar district, 12 crèches and four centres will be set up at Jalpaiguri, four crèches and two centres in Darjeeling, one crèche and one health centre in Kalimpong and one crèche will be set up in North Dinajpur district.

20 crèches and 21 health centres will be set up in the second phase and 26 crèches and 12 health centres will be constructed in the third phase. 50 children can stay at

each crèche.

The self help groups will be given the responsibility to run the crèches. One per-time doctor and two nurses will be present at the health centres. Local pharmacists will run the centres. The government will bear all the costs.

“We are mainly constructing these crèches and health centres for tea garden workers. Although, if required others like construction workers will be allowed to reap the benefits,” the minister added.

Meanwhile, the Minister informed that in the first week of March a tripartite meeting will be held on the minimum wages of tea garden workers. The Minimum Wages Advisory Committee will hold the meeting.

Minister Moloy Ghatak said: “The tea advisory committee has already held 14 consecutive meetings to resolve the minimum wage issue but could not come to a decision. If all sides agree on an amount, we will implement it immediately as minimum wage.”

It is noted that another tripartite meeting will be held on February 17 regarding issues related to four tea gardens of hills namely Rungmuk Cedar, Rangaroon, Aloobari and Pandam tea estate.

Along with minister Moloy Ghatak, minister Bulu Chik Baraik, state president of INTTUC Ritabrata Bondhopadhay, additional Labour Commissioner Ajit Ranjan Bardhan, Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Chhetri, GTA Chief Executive Anit Thapa,

SJDA Chairman Sourav Chakraborty and others were present at the meeting.