Workers in a garden in Shipaidura, 40km from Darjeeling, on Monday. (Reuters)

Darjeeling, June 23: Truckloads of Darjeeling Tea made their way down the hills all night long following the relaxation of the indefinite bandh from 6pm yesterday, but planters are worried about the short-lived respite at the end of which, gardens, too, will be included in the shutdown when it resumes on 6am on Wednesday.

“On an average, the 70-odd Darjeeling gardens have dispatched about 10,000kg of made-tea that were lying in godowns for the past one week. More consignments are expected to move by Wednesday morning,” said an industry source.

Although planters are looking at recovering some of the losses they were apprehending, things are not that rosy for the industry. “Most gardens have fixed buyers in countries like Japan, Germany and the US and the industry will be able to sell them the products this time. But the problems will arise after that as the gardens would be brought under the purview of the bandh starting from Wednesday,” said the source.

Representatives of the industry are trying to reason with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha so that the relaxation extended to the gardens from June 12 onwards remains till the second flush, which usually ends by June. The Morcha has, however, not yet given an assurance to the planters.

“We cannot lose out on the second flush. The quality is almost as good as the first flush and if not plucked on time, the tea will be spoilt. Even if we are allowed to pluck the tea, it must make it to our customers or else we will lose out on prices,” said a planter.

The average price that second flush tea usually fetches ranges from Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 per kg.

Many gardens today distributed wages among workers, which they were entitled to get on Saturday but did not as banks were closed and the planters could not go to Siliguri because of the bandh.

“Garden managers have been told not to hold back any payments,” said a source. Non-payment of salary despite the relaxation could pose law and order problems.

Many colleges across the hills also published their first lists to allow those selected for first year degree courses to seek admission.