Siliguri, Jan. 3: From Friday, tea garden managers across the state will don the role of “fair-price shopkeepers”, to quote a manager himself.

Perhaps that is the price the management will have to pay for sourcing workers’ foodgrain from the government’s public-distribution system. On January 5, the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) for the disbursement of ration in tea gardens will be launched state-wide. State food minister Paresh Adhikary will inaugurate the new system at the New Dooars tea estate, about 50 km from Jalpaiguri.

Under the new arrangement, the department have issued above poverty level (APL) ration cards to garden workers and their families, while the managers of the estates will act as ration dealers.

“The new distribution system will not affect the understanding between the management and workers,” Adhikary said. “The quality and quantity of foodgrain will be according to specified standards.”

Though burdened with the extra responsibility, the management will have to spend less on foodgrain in the TPDS than in the existing free market system. “It only means that from now on, managers will double up as keepers of free-price shops and that means a lot of work for them,” said P.K. Bhattacharya, the secretary of the Dooars Branch of Indian Tea Association.

The TPDS is expected to cover about 3 lakh tea workers. “In Jalpaiguri alone, the scheme will cover 30 per cent of the total population,” Bhattacharya said.

For the workers, even under the new system, they will get ration at the rate of 40 paise per kg in their existing quotas. But, they are not completely free of complaints. “There have been several cases of fake beneficiaries,” said Alok Chakaraborty, the district president of Intuc and joint general secretary of National Union of Plantation Workers. “At Naxalbari, a number of people, who are not bona fide workers, have been issued ration cards. We have submitted a memorandum to the Naxalbari gram panchayat asking for a probe into the matter. The racket has been worked out by the CPM in connivance with the panchayat members and the management.”

Samir Roy, the secretary of the West Bengal Cha Mazdoor Sabha and the convener of Defence Committee for Plantation Workers’ Rights, alleged the workers’ unions were not adequately informed. “We get to hear from the media that the scheme is about to get started,” he said.