The Hindu Business Line : Dooars tea garden workers to get Rs 1,000 ex-gratia

Kolkata, Oct. 15 The Union Government will make a one-time ex-gratia payment of Rs 1,000 each to the workers of the closed tea gardens in Dooars in West Bengal in view of the festival season.

A total of 15,670 workers are on the payroll of 13 closed gardens and the total outgo will be Rs 1.6 crore approximately. The payment will be made from Tuesday.

The money will be paid from the coffers of the Tea Board and the necessary approvals in this regard from the Ministries concerned have already been obtained.

The External Affairs Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, and Mr Basudeb Banerjee, Chairman of Tea Board, among others, will be present at the function to be held on this occasion at Jalpaiguri on Tuesday.

It might be noted that the gardens in Dooars, which are open and in running condition, have already paid bonuses to their workers as per the industry-level bonus agreement reached in September.

The demand was placed for an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2,000 each to the workers of the closed gardens.

Kerala demand

It might be noted that the workers of the closed gardens in Kerala too had appealed for a similar ex-gratia payment on the occasion of Onam festival some time ago. Their demand was a modest Rs 500 each worker but it fell on deaf ears, it is learnt.

More Stories on : Trade & Labour Unions | Tea | West Bengal

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