Silchar, Feb. 9: The Bhuvan Valley tea garden in Cachar district reopened this morning after over four months with all its 500 regular workers reporting on duty.

The tea garden, 37km to the east of this town, had been shut since last October when its Calcutta-headquartered management suddenly “cea-sed functioning” in the wake of what trade union circles here described as “mismanagement”.

The garden was reopened in the presence of 22 officials of the company and euphoric workers who burst firecrackers. The management, over the past two days, paid its promised first instalment of Rs 24 lakh as arrears in wages of labourers and their provident funds.

The food ration, denied to the workers and their families during the closure period, was again distributed, thus fending off their four-month penury and misfortune.

Chief accountant of Bhuvan Valley Basanta Kumar Bharal, who came here on Monday from Calcutta, held the last phase of negotiations with the Barak Valley Cha Sramik Union, aiming at ending the stalemate and was finally able to win the confidence of the workers. The tea garden produced about 4 lakh kg of CTC tea annually.

Assam’s former Congress minister and current union general secretary D.P. Goala said 11 workers of Bhuvan Valley died of starvation in the past two months.

Cachar district deputy commissioner Harendra Ku-mar Dev Mahanta intervened to ease the situation after the workers staged a dharna in front of his office in January.

Assistant manager of the garden Phulan Ahmed Barbhuyan today said the company would release more funds over the next few weeks to pay the arrears.