The Trinamool Congress's trade union for tea garden workers has announced gate meetings on every plantation in Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts.

The Trinamool Cha Bagan Sramik Union will take up workers’ demands at the meetings, which are scheduled to be held from 7am to 8.30am on March 16 and 17. After the meetings, workers will join their regular duties.

The Alipurduar district has 63 tea gardens, and Jalpaiguri has 78.

Nakul Sonar, the chairman of the union, said: “At the gate meetings, we will demand payment of pending provident fund, gratuity, wages, and bonus.”

Simultaneously, union leaders will elaborate on the state government’s schemes for the welfare of tea garden workers and their families.

Tea garden workers’ wages have been recently revised in the poll-bound states of Assam and Kerala.

The revisions have prompted the Opposition in Bengal to raise questions over the pending decision on the minimum wage for the tea workers of Bengal.

On Thursday, Ajoy Edwards, who heads the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front in the hills, sent a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, seeking an interim wage of ₹500, which is double the existing pay.

As of now, the daily wage of a tea worker in Bengal is ₹250.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, Trinamool could not perform well in the tea belt of north Bengal.

“This time, Trinamool is desperate to win these seats and is playing the development card by underscoring the welfare schemes and initiatives taken by the state government for the tea population. But the higher wage has always been the workers' priority. After the wage hike in Assam and Kerala, the Trinamool union has lined up gate meetings as a tactical shift from the wage hike demand, as many gardens are yet to clear wage and PF dues," said a political analyst