Trinamul leaders, including trade union leaders of the party, took up the task to elaborate on the initiatives of the Mamata Banerjee government for tea workers and their families at a public meeting held on Monday solely for the population in the Terai brew belt.

This is the second such meeting after the one on Sunday which the party convened in north Bengal, a region dotted with around 300 tea estates and numerous small tea plantations. Around 3,000 tea workers and their families from 42 tea estates of Terai, located in Siliguri subdivision of Darjeeling district and neighbouring Islampur subdivision of North Dinajpur district, joined the meeting convened by the INTTUC, which is the workers’ front of Trinamul.

“We spoke in detail about the schemes and initiatives which the state government have launched specifically for tea workers. We also said that in the past 11 years (since the Mamata government came to power in Bengal), their daily wage rate has increased from Rs 67 to Rs 232. On the other hand, the Centre, despite making elaborate commitments, has not done anything for tea workers in recent years,” said Alok Chakraborty, a senior trade union leader and chairman of Darjeeling (plains) Trinamul.

Along with Chakraborty, state labour minister Moloy Ghatak, INTTUC state president Ritabrata Banerjee and district leaders were present at the meeting.During the past few months, Trinamul has been focusing on the tea belt to revive its support base. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and party’s all India general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have visited the region and attended a number of social and political events to woo the tea population, a considerable number of whom have voted for the BJP in recent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

“These meetings are being held to apprise people about the schemes under which they are receiving benefits from the state government,” said a senior Trinamul functionary. He also said that the initiative to woo tea workers and their families — there are over three lakh tea workers in the region — will continue.On September 9, a delegate session will be held in Malbazar of Jalpaiguri where rep¬resentatives from all tea gardens of the region will attend.

“On September 10, our party’s national general sec¬retary Abhishek Banerjee will address a public meeting,” the party leader said.