Hamro Party (HP) president Ajoy Edwards has sent a letter to Anit Thapa, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), requesting the latter to grant financial aid from its corpus fund to workers of closed tea estates in the Darjeeling hills ahead of the festival season.

Seven tea estates with around 4,000 workers are closed down in the hills.

In his letter, Edwards said the GTA had initiated a funds collection drive for tea garden workers in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Around ₹2.12 crore was collected through the drive.

“The GTA had pledged to match the donated amount with the total fund intended to reach ₹4.24 crore. While the public contribution was distributed to workers of the closed tea gardens in 2023, it is understood a portion of the fund remains in the bank account,” reads the letter.

The HP chief said as the gardens were closed down, the workers would not get bonuses ahead of Durga Puja and traditional festivals like “Fulpati Utsav” and “Dasain”.

“I am requesting to arrange the puja Bonus for workers of the closed tea gardens from the remaining amount from the relief fund of GTA,” Edwards said in the letter.

Sources in the GTA, however, said no money was left in the corpus fund.

“At the GTA, it was decided that the relief funds created during the pandemic would be used to construct a Shramik Awas in Siliguri. Even then, as around 4,000 workers of closed tea gardens did not get bonuses last year, the GTA had handed over some financial assistance to them,” said S.P. Sharma, the public relations officer of GTA.

“The Hamro Party leader knows it well. Instead of putting pressure on the tea companies concerned, he is trying to mount pressure on the GTA,” he added.