Citing the case of Mukesh Goala, a 23-year-old worker of Bandapani Tea Estate in West Bengal, who died the day after a group of NGO and trade union activists met him and informed the district administration about his plight, activists on Saturday submitted a list of 12 names to the State’s Labour and Food Ministers stating that these people required immediate medical attention.
Under the banner of ‘Right to Food and Work Campaign,’ a team of 12 trade union members and NGO representatives visited five closed tea gardens of north Bengal from July 8 to July 11.
“We request your immediate intercession in this matter because one of them namely Mukesh Goala died the day after we met him. This shows the urgency of the situation and the need for immediate intervention,” the letters addressed to the State’s Food Minister, Jyotipriya Mullick, and Labour Minister Moloy Ghatak said.
While four workers each in the list are from the closed Dheklapara tea garden and Dharanipur tea garden, two are from Bandapani Tea Garden and one each from Red Bank tea garden and Surendranagar Tea garden.
Most are above 50“Most of the person in our list are bedridden and above 50 years of age. They are highly malnourished and suffer from certain ailments also,” Anuradha Talwar, one of the members of the delegation, said.
Ms. Talwar said that most of the workers whom the members met said that relief was not a solution and the State government should take up efforts to reopen the closed and abandoned tea gardens of the region.
According to the West Bengal government, there are 23 closed and abandoned tea gardens in the Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts of the State.
‘Conduct survey’In their letter addressed to the Ministers, the representatives of ‘Right to Food and Work Campaign’ have urged the State government to conduct a survey of such people stating that the list prepared by them “are only [of] people we were able to meet during our brief visit.”
Meanwhile, the development comes ahead of visit of Mr. Mullick and Mr. Ghatak and North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Deb to the tea gardens of north Bengal. The Ministers are scheduled to visit the gardens and hold a meeting at the north Bengal branch of the State Secretariat ‘Uttarkanya’ on July 15.
Other deaths due to malnutrition and lack of medical facilities have been reported in at least two other tea gardens — Raipur Tea Estate and Bandapani Tea Garden — over the past few weeks.
