by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Kalimpong : Citing the unprecedented violence, agitation and a prolonged shutdown in the northern West Bengal hills last year over the demands for separate state of Gorkhaland, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday urged locals to forget the past and “work together like a family” for the betterment of the people.
Claiming that the 104-day long complete shutdown in the hills of Darjeeling from mid-June to September last year had critically impacted the development and economy of the region, she said the state government and the local administrative boards like Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) have to work hand in hand to recover the lost ground.
“Whatever has happened, has happened. I want to forget that. I want that if there was any mistake from my part, we can work towards rectifying that mistake. It is important to work for the betterment of people with an honest heart to bring about the ‘Acche Din’ (better days),” Banerjee said at a public meeting in Darjeeling district’s hill town Kalimpong.
“I want the hills to make progress. If some leaders call strike for six to eight months in the hills, the people here suffer immensely. Unemployment goes up and the developmental projects of the government come to a halt…Whichever board does better work, I will help them more. I will help the GTA too. Let’s stay together like a family and work together for the betterment of hills,” she said.
Congratulating the Darjeeling hills for the tourist inflow this year, the Chief Minister encouraged more numbers of tourist sectors, home stays and industries in the region. She also pointed out that special stress should be given on agriculture, horticulture and food processing.
However, the Trinamool Congress supremo asked the local developmental boards to spend the government aid properly and maintain a clean financial record.
“We gave Rs 3,804.17 crore to the previous GTA board. After the new board was formed, we have handed them Rs 705.58 crore for doing the work. Total Rs 4,509.75 crore has been given. We want the GTA and all the other boards to properly utilise the money and keep their financial records clean,” Banerjee said.
She also said the state government wants to build an educational hub in Darjeeling and the process of building a state university in Mongpu under Kurseong sub-division has started.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodities, Commodities News, Economy, Emerging Businesses, Markets, News, SMEs
By Bappaditya Chatterjee,
Kolkata : Amid problems of a fund crunch, shortage of workers and rising cost of production, Darjeeling’s tea planters are keeping their fingers crossed for a relatively “better season” with favourable weather conditions, a stable political situation and a 10 per cent higher price for the premium variety first flush this year.
Faced with an “unusual situation” arising out of the political crisis in the north Bengal hills last year, the industry had lost about 70 per cent of its annual production.
All plucking and manufacturing operations in Darjeeling’s 87 gardens were suspended for over three months starting from last June due to an indefinite shutdown called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha demanding a separate Gorkhaland state.
“Since June last year, there was no production. Darjeeling tea producers had to incur cost on account of revival of gardens along with payment to workers without any revenue generation. The biggest challenge that we faced was a funds crunch,” Darjeeling Tea Industry (DTA) Chairman Binod Mohan told IANS.
According to DTA Secretary General Kaushik Basu, the industry had to incur “an estimated Rs 350 crore (almost $535 million) of unproductive expenditure” on account of reclamation and revival of the gardens during September last year to March this year without any income.
“Gardens became financially sick. Banks have shown reluctance in advancing credit to the industry as they have been treating it as risky. We have requested the Centre to look into the matter. Moreover, we had sought support from the Centre as relief, but there is no announcement so far from the government on this front,” Basu told IANS.
However, there has been “a delayed start to the new season” this year due to cold weather conditions and reclamation of gardens, Mohan said.
“We hope for a relatively better season ahead, provided there is no disruption due to adverse weather conditions or political instability,” he said.
Echoing Mohan, DTA Principal Advisor Sandeep Mukherjee told IANS: “Compared to the last two challenging years, this year overall production is expected to be better, as there has been much-needed rain at the beginning of the season. The industry had faced an unusual situation last year due to the agitation and, in 2016, there was a drought at the beginning of the season.”
This year, crop production during the first flush season, usually starting from March end to early May, could be less by 10 per cent compared to last year’s production, which was not affected by the agitation, Basu said.
“However, in March itself, the first flush production was down by even 30 per cent in some gardens mainly due to a delayed start,” Mohan said.
“The production of first flush tea has not yet picked up. We hope it would pick up in due course but this year’s first flush production is expected to be less than last year’s as the shortage of workers looms large,” former DTA Chairman Ashok Lohia told IANS.
Worker shortage varies across gardens but absenteeism in the estates could be up to 35 per cent, causing delays in plucking; in addition, 70 per cent of Darjeeling’s cultivation is organic, which requires more workers, he said.
The first flush, which accounts for about 20-25 per cent of annual production of 8-9 million kgs of Darjeeling tea and caters to overseas markets, contributes significantly to the industry’s annual revenue.
“Planters are experiencing, on an average, a 10-15 per cent hike in price for the current first flush compared to last year,” Mohan said, adding the cost of production on account of paying wages will also go up by 20 per cent.
The West Bengal government had proposed an interim hike of Rs 17.50 to increase the remuneration to Rs 150 with effect from January 1, 2018. Workers would additionally be paid Rs 9 on account of ration entitlement from May onwards.
“There seems to be a substantial demand in overseas markets and price realisation, so far, in the first flush production, has been on an average 10 per cent higher than that of last year but it is still not up to the producers’ expectations on the back of cost escalation,” Lohia added.
(Bappaditya Chatterjee can be contacted at bappaditya.c@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Darjeeling : Months after violence and tension erupted in the north West Bengal hills centering the Gorkhland movement, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asked the political outfits in Darjeeling to maintain peace and ensure no form of violence returns to the region.
“Please give us peace, we will give you prosperity, that is our commitment. That is our assurance,” Banerjee said here after inaugurating the first ‘Hill Business Summit’, nearly six months after the longest ever shutdown in the Darjeeling hills was withdrawn.
“Please see Darjeeling is clean and green. Please ensure that there isn’t any violence. If there is violence, some political leaders might gain, but the people of Darjeeling won’t gain from it. The young generation would become more and more impatient,” she said.
The Chief Minister also announced that her government would provide Rs 100 crore for promotional development of job oriented industries in the region.
“Let’s first make a start. Our government is fully ready to help you. I can also assure you on behalf of the industrialists that they will give you full cooperation,” she said.
Banerjee said special focus would be given to agriculture, horticulture industries, food processing zones, nurturing of orchids and developing IT infrastructure in the region.
She also requested the industrialists present at the meeting as well as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to prepare an action plan specially for Darjeeling where people are suffering from acute water problems.
“I think the youth of Darjeeling are skilled. They have a lot of potential. They can be used in different industrial sectors. Two IT parks would be set up in Kalimpong and Darjeeling. It can be done in Kurseong and Mirik too. IT has a lot of scope here,” she said.
Noting people from around the world want to come to Darjeeling because of its beauty, Banerjee said there is enough scope for the tourism and transport industry to thrive there.
“Let’s compete on the basis of development. I want the people of Darjeeling to be well,” she added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Events, Medium Enterprise, SMEs
Kolkata : Ahead of the Hill Business Summit staring on Tuesday in Darjeeling, plucking operations in at least three tea gardens were disrupted on Monday as the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labourers Union agitated against non-payment of Puja bonus.
Union General Secretary Bharat Thakuri on Sunday had threatened to halt plucking of first flush of tea leaves in the Darjeeling gardens demanding the clearance of last year’s bonus.
He claimed that only 14 out of 87 gardens in Darjeeling have cleared the dues.
After a tripartite meeting between unions, tea garden owners and the government in September last year, it was decided that the bonus for the financial year 2016-17 would be paid at 19.75 per cent of the annual wage earnings.
“Disruption of plucking operations in three gardens was reported on Monday and officials in these gardens were also gheraoed. Estate management are bound to pay bonus at the agreed amounts.
“We sought more time as the industry is facing financial crisis. We have promised them to pay dues of bonus by March 23,” the Darjeeling Tea Association’s principal advisor Sandeep Mukherjee told IANS.
The 87 gardens in the hills produce around 8 million kg of tea annually.
However, production as well as the industry were severely hit last year following a 104-day strike demanding a separate state of Gokhaland.
Meanwhile, Joint Forum of Trade Unions, an umbrella organisation of trade unions working in tea sector, alleged the state government was “reluctant to implement new minimum wage” for tea workers after the 10th round of minimum wages advisory committee meeting held in Kolkata on Monday.
“The outcome of today’s meeting is not satisfactory. The government was supposed to table a calculated amount for minimum wage. They again took time to prepare it and proposed to pay Rs 9 on account of entitled food grains money value as an interim measure.
“We will sit together in the next 3-4 days to decide our next course of action,” Joint Forum’s Covenor and Citu’s General Secretary (tea industry) Zia- Ul-Alam told IANS.
West Bengal government proposed an interim hike of Rs 17.50 to increase the remuneration from Rs 132.50 to Rs 150 with effect from January 1, 2018 in the last tripartite meeting.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Saeed Naqvi,
Darjeeling, Thimphu, Gangtok and Siliguri are a tight cluster on any map even in a large Atlas. Because of the recent standoff with China over Doklam, the strategic importance of the area, the saliency of the Siliguri corridor, cannot be overlooked. Is New Delhi taking an interest in the demand for a Gorkha homeland from this perspective?
My taxi has to wait outside Kurseong Toy Train station, on the way from Siliguri to Darjeeling, because a march by agitating Gorkha women will not let us pass. Violence in this sensitive area could be very unsettling. Angry women bang on the bonnet of my car and jeer at the Gorkha driver: “Have you joined the Bengalis?” It is a threatening query.
Similar bandhs and marches have brought life to a grinding halt for the past three months — and continuing. There are, of course, cunning leakages — a few chicken being sold here, some vegetables there. But this private enterprise disappears at the sight of approaching marchers.
Contrary to what one might imagine, this sporadic enterprise does not demonstrate a weakening of the popular will. In fact it helps people a bit and enables them to bear the suffering a little longer. It supplements the agitation.
Clearly, Gorkhaland is not likely to be conceded in a hurry. What then have the leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) promised the people? What spell have they cast on them because of which the people have diligently pursued these marches, street-corner meetings and picketing outside offices in an atmosphere of total bandh (bar the contrived leakages). Schools, hotels, restaurants and shops are shut and labourers on all the 88 tea plantations have struck work and are, therefore, beginning to depend on packets of food some well meaning people are arranging.
No one quite knows the preferred game plans of the plantation owners. The gossip is that they would now like the strike to continue till December and so they are not obliged to pay the workers three months’ wages (for the period when the plantations have been closed) plus bonus for puja holidays.
The inordinate extension of the bandh is causing all the leaders of the Gorkha Movement Coordination Committee to miss heart beats with alarming frequency.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is always inclined to see agitations, however legitimate, as an affront to her, has slapped countless cases against leaders, including Bimal Gurung, President of GJM, the main political party.
This has given him a respectable reason to run away from Darjeeling and hide in Sikkim. The cases, in other words, are a godsend. Had there been no cases, how would the leaders escape the wrath of the people who are on this occasion truly mobilised? They must be shown some movement towards Gorkhaland. This “movement” is proving elusive even by inches, leave alone feet and yards.
Since all leaders in the coordination committee were pushed from the precipice into a total bandh by the GJM leader Bimal Gurung, they are privately cursing him but are unable to publicly say anything that would make their resolve for Gorkhaland look weaker. But some of them are keeping a sly eye on any escape route which they can sell to the agitating populace as an advance towards their cause.
The situation is custom made for Mamata Banerjee, who is desperate to fill whatever political spaces she can with her TMC before the BJP does. If she can divide the leadership with promises of development plus a dialogue with the Centre on “the people’s demand”, perhaps a “dissident” faction can then be mobilised as a vehicle for the TMC.
There is a very big “perhaps”. Why would West Bengal politicians and bureaucrats ever loosen their grip on the hill station, the toy train which their children enjoy so much during the summer vacation. There is nothing more popular internationally and which Bengal claims as its own — Tagore and Darjeeling tea.
New Delhi habitually goes into a freeze when confronted with something new, particularly where strategic concerns are involved. Gorkha/Nepali speaking people from Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan are already keeping New Delhi busy. Gorkhaland would be a new distraction.
A strong card the Gorkhas can play concerns the military. There are thousands of Gorkhas in the Army. It is not uncommon to run into a soldier with heroic stories of the Kargil war. These soldiers would be perfectly justified in seeking home leave to see the families who have suffered a bandh for three months. Thousands seeking leave at once? It is a sensitive pressure point.
The straightforward political game the BJP can play to endear themselves to the Gorkhas is by opening up debate on something less than Gorkhaland — say, a Union Territory. Gorkhas would accept it. Darjeeling would come directly under New Delhi. Mamata would of course throw a ginger fit.
After a meeting of Gorkha leaders with Mamata on August 29, Vinay Tamang, Joint Secretary of the Morcha, and Anit Thapa, member of the Executive Committee, took the leaders and the agitators by surprise by asking them to end the bandh because positive but unidentifiable developments were expected by September 12. By that time the next round of meetings with Rajnath Singh and Mamata would have been held, they said. Well, September 12 too has come and gone and there is no sight of the bandh coming to an end.
Little wonder most of the Gorkha leaders, Bimal Gurung, Vinay Tamang, Anit Thapa, are on a rapidly declining popularity graph.
Bimal Gurung’s political career was launched by his opening numerous fan clubs for a Gorkha singing sensation, Prashant Tamang, who won the 2007 Indian Idol, a reality show. Prashant won in the third week of September. On October 7, Bimal Gurung had launched the GJM.
Impulsively, he leapt into the bandh when Mamata wanted Bengali to be inserted in the three language formula. Later she withdrew her word. But by that time the GJM and the coordination committee of other Hill parties were fairly advanced on a high-wire act. An endless bandh was on.
The leader whose graph is up is R.B. Rai, twice MP, President of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist, Central Committee. He is universally accepted as politically savvy and an incorruptible and respected leader. He believes “tripartite talks” are a promising enough outcome to end the bandh. Apparently, Rajnath Singh has dropped hints that New Delhi-Kolkata- Darjeeling tripartite talks on Gorkhaland are possible. But will Mamata agree?
Rai is cross with the amateurishness of Bimal Gurung for playing “the ultimate card of a total bandh without having a back-up plan. We should have started with Mohalla marches, struck work for a few hours, tested the political reaction in Kolkata and New Delhi, planned jail bharo andolans, gauged the plantation workers capacity to survive long strikes without wages. And so on.”
There was no plan, he laments. It is a fruitless bandh but it can only be called off when people see some real promise, he says.
So, until God comes riding a thunderbolt by way of a solution, Gorkha leaders are condemned to remain suspended on the last rung of a very high staircase leading to nowhere.
(Saeed Naqvi is a commentator on political and diplomatic affairs. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com)
—IANS
