No respite

Bharnobari Tea Estate (Alipurduar), March 7: Another worker of the Bharnobari tea estate died of acute malnutrition this morning.

With the death of Ashoke Oraon (48), the toll at the garden, which has been closed since December 2005, has reached 73.

In a bid to help workers of closed estates and make them aware of their rights, a team, led by Siddiqullah Chowdhury, the chairman of Gano Unnayan O Jano Adhikar Sangram Samiti, visited Bharnobari today. Promising to be with the labourers, Chowdhury urged them to launch a “democratic militant” struggle for their rights.

“This movement will be much more stronger than that in Nandigram. There, it was for land, here the struggle will be for life,” Chowdhury said. “We will soon open a branch in north Bengal to monitor the closed gardens.” The team visited the Chhota Bandhu line, where residents related to their pathetic condition.

“Workers are not getting food or medicines and their huts are in a deplorable condition, but the state government hardly seems to do anything about it,” Chowdhury said. “They claim to be a government for poor people, but their action makes them the enemy of every poor person.”

Later, the team attended a meeting at Hamiltangunj, where only around 150 workers were present. Most of them were from estates like Nepuchapu and Betguri, which are not even shut.