Gurung camp threat to boycott tea meet

TT, Calcutta, Sept. 19: The Bimal Gurung faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's trade union today threatened to walk out of a meeting to be convened to discuss the bonus of tea garden workers in the hills if "unauthorised" persons attended it.

Sources said the threat was aimed at the Morcha's Binay Tamang lobby which had yesterday named two representatives who would attend the September 21 meeting in Siliguri.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said yesterday that the issue of reopening the gardens and bonus for workers ahead of Puja was likely to be sorted out at the meeting between trade unions and planters.

The announcement came after her meeting with Tamang and Anit Thapa, who have been "expelled" from the Morcha for announcing a pause to the strike.

Tamang has said he will send Karuna Gurung and L.M. Lama to the meeting.

Karuna was an office-bearer of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Labour Union, which is affiliated to the Morcha. She was sacked for extending support to the Tamang camp.

Lama is a central committee member of the Morcha.

"The union has received an official communication for the meeting and we will definitely send our representatives. According to the norms, trade union leaders, representatives of the management and government officials sit for discussions. However, if unauthorised people attend the meeting, we will protest their presence and stage a walkout," said Suraj Subba, the general secretary of the union and a Gurung supporter.

Subba's threat to stage the walkout has cast a shadow on the success of the bonus talks.

"It will be of much interest to see how Binay Tamang's group is accommodated at the meeting. There are indications that the state will try to ensure the presence of Tamang's representative as the date for the bonus meeting was finalised after the chief minister held talks with him in Calcutta yesterday," said an observer.

During the meeting chaired by the chief minister in Siliguri on September 12, only Tamang's group had been invited, though Gurung had announced his own set of delegates.

Subba said the bonus "is not a political issue but a statutory obligation of the management".

"The workers are entitled to a minimum bonus of 8.33 per cent and a maximum of 20 per cent. The management of the respective tea estates has to pay the bonus that is the benefit of the last financial year. They are, however, trying to make it a political issue," he added.