Alipurduar, April 14: More than 500 workers of Singhania Tea Estate in Birpara today gheraoed the garden manager, P.D. Sharma, for over five hours and forced him to sit on the ground near the factory gate, protesting against wage cut and “unjustified” electricity bill.

The gherao had begun at seven in the morning and continued till 12.30pm. The workers did not join duty.

Droupadi Nayek of Goodam Line said: “I am paying Rs 250 every month, although I don’t have any electricity connection at my quarters. This is unjustified. The bills for those using one bulb and others use five are the same. We had gone to the manager several times to seek justice, but he refused to listen,” Nayek said.

The gherao was lifted when Sharma promised the workers that a meeting to discuss the issue would be held at the Indian Tea Planters’ Association, Birpara at 10am tomorrow.

Sharma said, “The workers had worked two half days during Holi and assured us that they would do the rest later. But now they are claiming full wages for that period without the extra work that they had promised. I am not ready to pay the full wage unless they work.”

The manager also alleged that the workers had stolen the electricity meters provided by the garden earlier. “Now they are being charged at a flat rate. They are also supposed to pay a percentage of the power bill for street lights,” he added.