Siliguri, Aug. 21: Labourers of a tea garden in the hills have written to trade unions and the management expressing wish to start working as the ongoing strike has cast a shadow over their livelihood.

Longview Tea Estate, which is located on the way to Kurseong along Pankhabari Road and 25km from here, has about 1,250 permanent workers and 400-odd casual labourers.

The garden hands held an informal meeting and decided to write to the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Plantation Workers' Union and the Himalayan Plantation Workers' Union, affiliated to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the GNLF, respectively, seeking their intervention. The workers sent a similar letter to the management also.

All 87 gardens producing Darjeeling Tea in the hills have been closed since June 15 when the Morcha announced the indefinite general strike.

"We have been sitting idle for two months and living amid sheer distress. We could no longer live in such misery and now, we want the garden to reopen and start functioning immediately," a worker said.

Permanent workers are supposed to receive wages for the lost days once the estate reopens. But many of them apprehend that the management won't be able to pay the wages as the strike has taken a toll on the Darjeeling tea sector's financial health.

Last year, Longview Tea had produced around six lakh kilos of tea. But this year, the output so far is only one lakh kilos. "Even if the strike is withdrawn tomorrow, it would take at least one-and-a-half months to make the plantation ready for plucking. This means, we are all set to lose a year. We appreciate the workers who have come forward during the crisis," said a management representative who confirmed having received the letter from the labourers.

He said the two operating unions in the gardens - of the Morcha and the GNLF - would have to take a decision on the workers' plea as the management had no role in the current closure.

The management, he said, has called the unions and the workers to talks to reach a decision. "We will sit in a day or two to discuss the issue," he said.

A section of the workers went to the plantation today and worked voluntarily. They cleared the creepers and weeds which had covered tea bushes and made necessary chopping to enable the growth of fresh leaves.

"The move indicates the brewing discontentment among the tea workers, who have been sitting idle for the past two months, and their families. Leaders of the Morcha as well as its trade union have time and again claimed that the tea workers are happily parting with their wages as they support the demand of Gorkhaland,' said an observer.

Earlier, workers and residents of Badamtam Tea Estate, located on the outskirts of Darjeeling, had weeded the garden voluntarily. There were reports that they had to face reprehension from some local Morcha leaders.

"The situation has changed a lot since. People have started raising questions on the course of the movement and the strike. That the tea workers are grossly worried as to how industry will sustain losses is evident from the initiative witnessed in Longview," a tea planter based in Siliguri, said.

Mahendra Chhetri, the general secretary of the GNLF, confirmed that the party's trade union had received the letter from the labourers of Longview.

We are looking at the matter," he said.

Classes begin

Teachers of Himali Boarding School in Kurseong started taking sessions for Class X and XII students at a community hall in the hill town on Monday after authorities of the institution had got a go-ahead from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.