Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused certain groups of trying to incite political unrest in the hills under the guise of a workers’ movement concerning bonuses, openly expressing her disapproval of the 12-hour strike organised by a coalition of tea trade unions on the same day.

Mamata, while departing for Calcutta from Bagdogra airport, said: “Tripartite talks are in progress to settle the bonus. The state labour department and its officials are conducting the talks and we hope the matter will be resolved soon. However, attempts are being made to politically disturb the area.”

Her assertion comes at a time when the tea trade unions in the hills have joined hands and organising the movement for the settlement of bonus from a joint platform. Some regional parties, the BJP and the Left, have lent their support to the movement.

“I do not support any strike. In Bengal, no strike is being observed. The (rate of) bonus has been finalised in the Terai and Dooars... I will not intervene in the issue as the labour department has already taken it up,” the chief minister said before entering the airport.

In Terai and Dooars, the bonus will be paid at 16 per cent, three per cent less than last year’s rate. In the hills, however, the trade unions are hell-bent on a bonus at the rate of 20 per cent.

Sources in the state government said Mamata is irked over the trade union’s decision to call a bandh and also with the decision of some of the regional parties, including the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha, that is headed by Anit Thapa, to support the strike. Thapa’s party, which is in power in the GTA, is an ally of the Trinamul.

“Earlier, there used to be protests in tea estates over the issue of the bonus. But this time, a general strike was called in the hills. This is why the chief minister is displeased. The state labour department has been clearly instructed to expedite the talks and reach a solution,” said
a source.

The impasse over the bonus issue in the hills has prompted the BJP camp to react and raise questions on why the chief minister is not intervening.

“I had sent a letter to the chief minister, mentioning that a simple notification from her office or the state labour department would have resolved the impasse and the workers would have got their rightful bonus. But the chief minister, despite being in north Bengal, didn’t intervene,” said BJP’s Darjeeling MP Raju Bista.

Bista, who has expressed solidarity with the tea workers, has termed the bandh as a “non-political” strike called by the workers for their rights.

“The ignorance of the chief minister and the state government shows that the people of Darjeeling don’t matter to her,” said Bista, who is also a national spokesperson of the party.

Small plantations

The rate of bonus for the workers serving in the small tea plantations of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar was decided through a bipartite meeting in Jalpaiguri on Monday.

Bijoygopal Chakraborty, secretary of the Jalpaiguri Zilla Kshudra Cha Chashi Samiti, said this year, workers serving in tea plantations measuring up to 15 acres will get the bonus at the rate of 9.25 per cent while workers in plantations with areas varying between 15 acres to 25 acres will receive the bonus at 10.25 per cent rate.

“Altogether, around 25,000 workers will get the bonus at these two rates in both the districts,” said Chakraborty.