Darjeeling’s BJP MP Raju Bista today said that and “Experts’ Committee” under the Tea Board of India will be sent to the Hills to study the problems facing the tea industry.

According to Mr Bista, who led a delegation of the BJP’s Darjeeling Unit and met Minister for Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal in Delhi today, Mr Goyal has also assured that he would ask the department to submit a detailed report on the tea industry situation at the earliest.

Mr Bista said that the delegation highlighted the various issues confronting the tea industry in the Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Dooars, and requested the minister’s intervention in helping resolve them.

Mr Bista particularly drew the attention of Mr Goyal to the ongoing crisis in the 10 tea gardens run by the Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Pvt Ltd (DOTEPL) like Happy Valley, Ambootia, Aloobari, Monteviot, Nagari, Rungmook, Mundakothee, Chungthung, Rangeyroong, and Pandam, where workers have not been paid their wages for some time now.

The delegation of Hill leaders comprised BJP District President Dr Kalyan Dewan, Vice-President LM Lama, General Secretaries Binod Moktan, Tulsi Pradhan, Sujendra Rai and other leaders. “We informed the Union Minister how over 10,000 permanent and thousands of seasonal workers from these gardens, their family members and children were suffering due to non-payment of the wages.

Despite such a colossal crisis, till date the West Bengal government and the district administration have failed to take concrete steps to provide any support to the workers,” Mr Bista said. He also alleged that the West Bengal government had failed to provide alternative employment opportunities for workers of the Panighatta and other tea gardens in Darjeeling that have remained shut for long.

“In this regard, we have requested the Hon’ble Minister to constitute an Expert Committee under the Tea Board to ascertain the ground situation, examine the reasons for shutting down of these gardens, to provide help and support to the tea workers, and take necessary steps to resolve the crisis; arrange for providing financial relief and support to the workers of the shut gardens; and take over these gardens as per the provisions of Chapter III-A of the Tea Act, 1953 (29 of 1953), or ask the WB Govt to run these gardens through the WB Tea Development Corporation Ltd, or alternatively allow these gardens to be run as a Worker’s Run Cooperatives,” the MP said in a release.

“We have also requested for the tea gardens to be included under the Ministry of Agriculture, so that the workers and tea promoters can benefit from the various agricultural policies and schemes of Government of India,” he added.