Comments
The worsening plight of tea garden workers in North Bengal found resonance in the Lok Sabha on Thursday with BJP member SS Ahluwalia from Darjeeling seeking payment of minimum wages to all workers.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Ahluwalia said “Most tea estates are paying ₹ 90-95 as daily wages. But the record is shown as ₹190,” adding that the managements were deducting around ₹100 in the name of fringe benefits.
He said a team of leaders from BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is visiting tea gardens in North Bengal, had found that “most management are collecting provident funds from workers but not depositing these with the PF department....Strict measures have to be taken to recover the PF amount.”
Later, talking to reporters, Ahluwalia flayed the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal for not sending “even a section officer” for a meeting of all stakeholders called by Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman in October to discuss the plight of tea garden workers in the region.
He also alleged “no cooperation” from the District Magistrate in his area for the opening of Jan Dhan accounts.
“We have to talk directly to the banks,” he added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.