The Bengal government has taken strong exception to attempts made by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) to unilaterally “facilitate” the takeover of four tea gardens in the Darjeeling hills by a new owner bypassing established norms.

Many in the industry, including representatives of tea planters and trade unions, have termed the GTA’s move “illegal.”

The state labour department has called a meeting in Siliguri on Friday to review the entire episode. The four gardens are Rangmook-Cedar, Rangaroon, Aloobari and Pandam, which are leased out to Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Pvt Ltd (DOTEPL).

Sources said the GTA had called a meeting between leaders of trade unions and a prospective buyer in the conference hall of Lal Khoti — the administrative headquarters of the hill body — on December 8, 2022, “regarding re-opening” of the four estates.

Following a “memorandum of settlement” sealed at the meeting, the new management based in Siliguri started taking control of the four gardens within a couple of days and clearing various liabilities like pending wages.

“The takeover is illegal as it violates statutory norms and sets a very dangerous precedent in the tea industry,” said a planter. DOTEPL is primarily managed by a group of European investors. It had initially managed 13 tea gardens but later sold off nine estates because of financial constraints.

The leases of the four gardens are pledged to two leading banks. Financial matters related to the gardens are also pending before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

“Usually, such agreements are drawn up after getting the consent of the present company (DOTEPL) and clearance from NCLT, and also keeping the lenders in the loop. The assistant labour commissioner’s office is also kept in the loop,” said a planter. “Our understanding is that these norms were not followed while drawing up the agreement.”

Sources said the government took strong note of the manner in which the GTA handled the issue. “On the instruction of labour minister Moloy Ghatak, the office of the assistant labour commissioner immediately convened a meeting ‘on the present state of affairs of these four gardens’ on December 12,” said a source.

A representative of the government from Calcutta also attended the meeting but sources said there was a heated exchange of words between leaders of the trade union affiliated to the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) — the party in power at the GTA — and a senior government official.

The government refused to endorse the agreement.

DOTEPL filed a case in a Darjeeling court against the Siliguri-based buyer and trade unions who had taken part in the December 8 meeting.

The sources said the new company which had cleared the liabilities of a “few crores” of rupees later pulled out of the agreement citing financial constraints.

Rajesh Chauhan, the deputy chairman of the GTA Sabha, however, tried to wash his hands of the agreement.

“Since we received a complaint of financial distress among workers of those four gardens, we simply acted as a facilitator to reopen them. The agreement was signed between the unions and the new management. The GTA did not sign any agreement,” said Chauhan who had taken part in the December 8 meeting.

Trade unions of the GNLF and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha said their “central leaders” had not attended the meeting called by the GTA as it was “illegal”.

“In fact, we informed the labour minister (Ghatak) that even though we wanted a new management to step in for the sake of workers, we couldn’t be a party to an illegal process,” said Suraj Subba, the president of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union (DTDPLU), which is affiliated to the Morcha.

J.B. Tamang, the working president of the Hill Terai Dooars Plantation Workers Union of the BGPM, said: “Everything will be sorted out at tomorrow’s meeting. Leaders of the local units of hill Opposition parties had attended the meeting at Lal Khoti.”