Starvation kills 100 tea garden workers in Bengal
Reason behind the current state of these labourers, sources say, is their sub-standard wages.
The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government is facing a fresh challenge as starvation-related deaths in closed tea gardens of north Bengal's Dooars region, located in the foothills of Himalayas, are on the rise.
According to reports, nearly 100 people have died of starvation and acute malnutrition in the five closed tea gardens in Dooars since January this year with at least 10 of them dying last month itself.
Reason behind the current state of these labourers, sources say, is their sub-standard wages. The workers are paid only Rs 90 for eight hours a day to produce the expensive Darjeeling tea, while in Terai and Dooars the figure is Rs 95 a day, sources said.
The mentioned five closed tea gardens are Dheklapara tea garden, Dharanipur tea garden, Bandapani Tea Garden, Red Bank tea garden and Surendranagar Tea garden.
The state government, however, dubbed the whole issue as nothing but a media creation. But as a part of the damage control, the Trinamool administration had formed a co-ordination committee to monitor the situation in the closed tea gardens in north Bengal.