The quinine factory in Mungpoo, which is virtually defunct following high production costs and lack of proper marketing facilities. Picture by Suman Tamang

Mungpoo, July 28: Faced with a bleak future, workers of the cinchona plantation, which is the largest government organisation in the hills, today maintained that they were ready to work for extended hours to resurrect the ailing plantation.

The cinchona plantation, providing sustenance to around 40,000 people, is currently running on an annual loss of around Rs 25 crore. In the 26,000-acre plantation, cinchona alone is grown on 8,000 acres, with other medicinal plants taking up the remaining space. Some of the land is also kept fallow.

Leaders of five trade unions — Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League, CPRM, Congress, Forward Bloc and the CPI — maintained that the government was not doing enough to help revive the plantation.

“We are ready to put in more hours of work and increase productivity, but the government has to concentrate on diversification of the product and also in utilising the fallow land and other areas,” said L.M. Sharma, the president of United Forum, which comprises the five unions.

The decision of the forum comes at a time when most of the tea garden workers have been agitating against stringent measures adopted by the garden management across the hills.

The unions also want the government to cut down on overhead expenditures and “put a check on rampant corruption”.

Though the 5,000-odd cinchona workers are getting their monthly salaries, the government decision to freeze new appointments in the plantation has set off the alarm.

“It is a sure sign that the government wants to close down the plantation. We cannot allow this to happen,” said Sharma.

The unions have decided to hold a public meeting and bring out a rally in Darjeeling on July 30. “We will meet the district administration and if nothing concrete takes shape we will go on a dharna. If there is no response from the government, we will stage a dharna in front of the Assembly,” he said.

Darjeeling district magistrate Aariz Aftab said the government was considering “diversification of the cinchona plantation into other medicinal and citrus plants” and meetings were being held to chalk out the plans.