A new company took charge of two tea estates owned by the Duncans Goenka Group on Wednesday, much to the relief of around 4,700 workers of these gardens.

For the past five-six years, Kilkott and Nagaisuree — the tea estates located in Matialli block of Jalpaiguri in western Dooars — were running in an erratic manner. In March 2020, activities in both the gardens came to a standstill.

“An agreement was signed on Tuesday based on which, the new company — Sanmelan Tea & Beverages Private Limited — took charge of these gardens today (Wednesday). There hasn’t been any transfer of ownership but, based on the agreement, they will run the gardens now,” said a source.

As representatives of the new company, along with tea trade union leaders, reached the gardens on Wednesday, workers and their families welcomed them by playing traditional instruments.

A few months after operations at the two gardens came to a halt in March last year, a company came forward and started running them.

“Things were fine during the first few months until we found that the company is paying the wages but not making deposits in the provident fund accounts of the workers. Ahead of the Durga Puja this year, there were disagreements over the bonus rate and eventually, the company paid a 13 per cent bonus. A couple of weeks back, representatives of the company expressed inability to run the gardens any further,” said Prakash Naik, the Matialli block general secretary of Cha Bagan Trinamul Congress Mazdoor Union.

There are around 2,000 workers in Kilkott and another 2,700 in Nagaisuree.

Trinamul leaders and the state labour department started searching for a new company that can run the gardens. They found Sanmelan Tea & Beverages and a meeting was convened at the office of the additional labour commissioner (north) at Dagapur in Siliguri.