Chamong Tee, the largest group in the Darjeeling tea industry, has decided to disburse wages for the lockout period, a move which is expected to create pressure on all private industries in Bengal to pay employees during the shutdown.

A.K. Lohia, chairman, Chamong Tee Exports Private Limited, told The Telegraph that workers in the company’s tea gardens were paid fortnightly.

“The fortnightly wages will be disbursed tomorrow (Saturday) and will include the payment of the lockdown days till March 31,” Lohia said while adding that the company was merely following the guidelines of the central and state governments.

The governments have made it clear that private entities should pay workers during the lockdown period. However, till date, most of the private employers have made no such move.

The tea industry in north Bengal has been shut since the nationwide lockdown was announced.

Chamong Tee has 13 gardens in the Darjeeling hills and four in Assam and altogether around 9,000 workers.

Sources said no tea garden either in the hills or the plains had announced payment of wages for the lockout period.

“This is definitely going to create pressure on other gardens. The obvious question would be if one group can pay, why the other can’t,” said an insider in the tea industry.

There are 87 gardens which produce Darjeeling Tea. “Other companies in the Darjeeling tea industry will definitely come under tremendous pressure. The ripples will travel to tea estates in the Terai and the Dooars and even Assam,” the industry insider said.

He said even other private industries in the state would come under pressure to pay workers during the lockdown. GTA chief Binay Tamang, who is also a member of a tea committee formed by the Bengal government, welcomed the Chamong Tee group’s initiative.

Tamang said the state government had started distributing Rs 37,500 each to 2,133 workers of three closed tea gardens — Dooteriya, Kalaj Valley and Peshok — in the hills. “The payment is the Financial Assistance to the Workers in Locked Out Industrial Units (FAWLOI). Another 417 beneficiaries would be paid soon. The amounts include dues of a couple of years,” said Tamang.

Power breather plea

Representatives of tea estates in Alipurduar district have sought relief in power bills as production came to a halt because of the lockdown.

The demand was made at a meeting chaired by Jalpaiguri commissioner A.R. Bardhan with managers of tea estates.

According to them, even though the gardens are closed, the companies need to bear electricity costs for residences of the managerial staff, other employees and workers and hospitals.

The managers urged the administration to see that after the lockdown is withdrawn, the power bills for the next two-three months are deferred by around 45 days and no fine is charged.

Additional reporting by our Alipurduar correspondent