This story is from July 21, 2018

Top cops in tea belt alerted on PF default cases

Top cops in tea belt alerted on PF default cases
Kolkata: The Bengal government has directed police in tea-producing districts to act promptly against garden owners who have mismanaged provident funds of workers. The directive comes a week after chief minister Mamata Banerjee ordered the labour department to initiate criminal proceedings against the defaulters.
State director-general of police (DGP) Virendra on Tuesday sent a memo to police officers in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Coochbehar and Uttar Dinajpur to take “prompt necessary action” against the management of gardens when the state labour department initiates criminal cases against them.

At the administrative meeting in Jalpaiguri on July 12, the CM had raised the issue of “dismal” condition of tea workers, particularly those in ailing tea estates, and warned erring producers to take adequate measures, failing which they might lose land lease or face legal action.
However, Indian Tea Association (ITA), the country's largest tea producers’ body, denied allegations of irregular payment or non-maintenance of PF accounts. ITA secretary-general Arijit Raha told TOI: “All ITA member estates adhere to labour laws and maintain PF accounts of workers.” ITA has 20 gardens in Darjeeling, 81 in Dooars and 15 in Terai as their members.
The Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA), the top tea producers’ body in the Hills, claimed to have no record on the numbers of their member gardens defaulting on wage and PF payments. One of the top office bearers of DTA said: “The local PF office must have all the details.”
But sources in PF commissionerate maintained that default of mandatory deposits by producers is a major issue in north Bengal’s gardens, particularly in Dooars and Terai. “As many as 55 tea gardens in the state do not regularly deposit the requisite PF amount,” said an official.

An official Tea Association of India (TAI), another tea producers’ body which has around 48 member gardens in the belt, admitted that three of their gardens may have been non-compliant.
Producer bodies blamed it on poor financial strain of the tea sector owing to high cost production, low price realization, oversupply of leaves and paucity of funds owing to zero-lending from the banks.
“The condition gardens in Dooars and Terai gardens are such that even survival is tough. But the government has taken a correct stance,” said Goodricke MD & CEO Atul Asthana.
G P Goenka, owner of Duncans Industries which has at least seven defunct gardens in Dooars, said: “Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of law. I have written to the CM and the labour minister many times to resolve the issue. The banks have literally stopped providing loans to our sector.”
The tea belt in north Bengal has been going through a rough phase for the last few weeks amid a few garden closures, gate meetings of the workers and a three-day strike call (July 23-25) demanding rise in daily minimum wage.
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BOX
Tea In Stress
No. of PF defaulter estates: 55
No. of closed gardens: 21*
No. of distressed gardens: 20
Permanent tea workers: 2.76 lakh
Dependent on tea: 8 lakh
Problems: High cost production, low price realization, oversupply of leaves, paucity of funds, low wage, unchecked entry of inferior tea, low exports push
[* Dooars: 10 (2 abondoned); Terai: 1 (Panighatta); Darj: 10 closed (Alchemist: 8, Duncans: 1, Rongtong:1)]
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