Tea growers are worried over the Bengal government’s reluctance to permit production and the decision to allow them to engage only 15 per cent of workers for the dressing of plants.

“We have received an order issued by the chief secretary. On Friday, he clarified in Calcutta that 15 per cent workers could be engaged only for skiffing (dressing). This clearly means the state government is not allowing production. In Assam, tea gardens will start the production from Saturday,” said Chinmoy Dhar, the manager of Majherdabri tea estate near Alipurdaur.

Tea planters said if only 15 per cent of the workers were engaged, there could be protests in gardens.

Further, no woman would get work as male labourers are engaged in the skiffing. The women are mostly tasked with plucking tea leaves.

“There are many families whose only permanent workers are women. If the production does not resume, how can we get work then? It is not clear whether the management will pay us even if we do not work during the lockdown,” said Sumati Barla, a worker of Majherdabri.

Amitangshu Chakraborty, the principal advisor to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association, said the industry had suffered losses during the first flush production and would suffer further if the second flush was not harvested either.

Additional reporting by our Jalpaiguri correspondent