The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has decided to distribute cash to workers of seven closed tea gardens from funds collected by the hill body during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Anit Thapa, the GTA chief executive, held a meeting with trade union leaders of all parties and Opposition leader Ajoy Edwards, also an elected GTA Sabha member and Hamro Party chief, at Peshok tea garden on Friday before making the announcement.

Edwards on Thursday wrote a letter to Thapa seeking the release of funds to workers of closed tea gardens who would not be getting bonuses during this Dashain (Durga Puja) festival period. Workers of many tea gardens are receiving bonuses at the rate of 19 per cent of their annual earnings, many less than 19 per cent and some are not getting any.

"Ajoy bhai sent me a letter yesterday (Thursday) and I also thought that this is the right time to release the funds. We called all the trade union leaders to discuss the issue. A committee, which includes union leaders, has been formed to overlook the process of cash distribution,” said Thapa.

Apart from union leaders, the committee comprises GTA elected Sabha members Rajesh Chowhan (from Anit Thapa’s party) and Jiten Rai from Edwards’s party and other GTA officials.

Sources said that the committee is looking at distributing about Rs 4,000 each to the workers of seven closed tea gardens.

The GTA chairman relief fund was set up by Anit Thapa as the GTA-nominated head, on March 24, 2020, purportedly to take up the task of “paying tea garden workers during lockdown”. Over 11,000 people contributed Rs 2.12 crore and Thapa announced that the GTA would contribute a matching amount. The matching grant is, however, unlikely to come through.

Unlike other sectors in the country, the tea industry was shut only from March 25 to April 9, 2020. Hence, with tea gardens operating during the pandemic, the fund’s express purpose was defeated.

Its utilisation had been a bone of contention.

In 2022, the GTA had formed a 15-member committee comprising representatives of trade unions to decide how to use the fund. Consensus proved elusive.

The GTA then announced that the hill body would construct a Shramik Bhavan in Siliguri with the amount. Opposition parties disagreed.

"We had decided to build a Shramik Bhavan in Siliguri with this fund but we now think that distribution (of money) to workers of closed tea gardens is the need of the hour,” said Thapa.

All Opposition parties have also agreed on the decision. “I am grateful that the GTA chairman acted immediately on my letter. At times, one needs to be united for a cause setting politics aside," said Edwards.