Dolu tea estate, Assam : Land acquisition in tea garden at the cost of livelihood and survival of workers.

 - Bidisha Barman

    The wee hours of 12th May, 2022 witnessed heavy police deployment along with officials from Airport Authority of India ( AAI), Cachar district administration and hundreds of JCBs at the Dolu Tea Estate of Cachar, Assam to demarcate land for a proposed Greenfield Airport. Meanwhile amidst heavy downpour thousands of workers with their families reached the spot to prevent this activity. Women workers and children were on their knees pleading with the security forces to move away but despite massive protests the JCBs continued their operation and started  excavating and uprooting tea bushes the same day.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced in January this year that a new airport will be built in Cachar and thereby a part of land of the Dolu Tea Estate will be used for this purpose. Later it was decided by the administration and AAI that 2500 bigha of  tea garden land will be acquired for the airport and the  government has estimated to pay a sum of ₹50 crore for the project. The management and owner of the garden had readily agreed to give away the land but workers of the Mainagarh and Lalbagh division of Dolu Estate vehemently opposed the decision.

 It has been months since the workers under several Worker Unions have been protesting against the proposed land acquisition for the Greenfield Airport. The administration, airport authority and a few unions had several meetings and on 7th March, 2022 a memorandum of understanding was signed between Dolu Tea Company Ltd and three Unions, Barak Cha Shramik Union, Akhil Bharatiya Chai Mazdoor sangh and Barak Valley Chah Mazdoor Sangh.

However a few other worker Unions and majority of  workers of the estate were unhappy with the clauses in the MoU which included payment of pending PF, gratuity and wages by the company with the amount received for the land but there is no clear mention of compensation or rehabilitation of those workers who will lose jobs because of the land transfer. Workers say the MoU doesn't take into account the major concerns regarding life and livelihood raised by most workers of the estate.

 Thereafter on huge demand from workers a public hearing was held and more than 2000 workers signed a memorandum against the land transfer and made their stand clear that they do not agree to the clauses in the MoU. But instead of making note of the demands and pleas made in the public hearing and in several protests held outside the Silchar DC office, the  with a firm grip decided to go ahead with the proposed Airport project. Payment of PF, gratuity or wage cannot be part of a land acquisition compensation. The company is anyway obliged to pay that because it is the the right of every worker to get paid  all their dues and rights from the pockets of the owners of these tea gardens.

 

The airport authorities and district administration arrived twice at the Dolu garden to demarcate the land with hundreds of security forces armed with riot gears but meeting with heavy protests by workers they had to retract. Workers had raised their voice in unison that only after killing them, the tea plants could be destroyed. It needs to be mentioned that around 30 lakh tea bushes are expected to be extracted to clear the land for the airport.

A few days before the excavation and eviction started, several rounds of flag march were held in front of the Mainagarh and Lalbagh divisions of the estate which had agitated the workers and a face off was seen between the workers and security personnel. Workers believed it was done by the Government under the iron fist control of corporate capital to show their  might and power.

It was in the evening of 11th May that Section 144 was imposed in the area around the tea estate. As soon as the news spread, locals anticipating that their fear would come true reached the Lalbagh division.

Hundreds of JCBs were deployed for the deforesting action and there was heavy presence of armed personnel. Workers cried, begged, pleaded that their concerns be addressed and process of uprooting the tea plants should stop but they were forcefully removed from the area and the operation was carried out even though local tea labourers have been vociferously protesting against these moves fearing job losses.

Workers cannot be treated like objects to be moving from one place to another at will of company owners. They deserve all dignity and right to decide for their livelihood and future. EIA has been a sham, as the public hearing document has been very conveniently discarded.

The administration has stuck to their statement that the acquisition process is being carried on as decided in the Memorandum of understanding.

This instance can be considered as another of capital's rapid move of accumulation and appropriation  at the cost of lives of the working class, marginalised communities and ecology to profit a few corporations and  capitalist owners. The process of eviction and land grab has seen to be intensified specially in resource rich regions and areas where huge amount of land can be easily available with help of the Government and local administration. Across the country the attack on adivasis, tribal communities and indigenous people have been carried out very conveniently by the Indian State to benefit a few profit making companies and lives of the marginalised have been pushed to the brims.  With no implementation of minimum wage and ownership of the homes and lands upon which these workers have been living upon since centuries, these tea gardens,it’s  bushes and most importantly it’s workers are easy preys of this discriminatory and class based exploitation under the whims of capitalism.

The attack on life and livelihood in Dolu Tea Estate has been made by coopting a few Unions and organisations, completely ignoring voice of those who will be impacted and none of the concerns of the workers have been heard or addressed.

Such acquisitions happen in the name of development and easy accessability but we ask, development of whom and at the cost of what!!

Ghoom Jorbunglow college staffs and students on relay hunger strike demanding it's recognition by the West Bengal State government.

- Sumendra Tamang

 

The teaching staffs and non teaching staffs ( 28+ 9) of Ghoom Jorbunglow college penned down their work from 29th April, 2022 and later on 6th of May started a relay hunger strike demanding state aided  recognition of the said college. This college was founded under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Counsil in 2004 and was later transferred to Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. Both of these autonomous boards have seriously failed to run this college in a transparent and democratic manner.  Ghoom Jorbunglow college may be affiliated to North Bengal University but the state of its  administration is extremely hazy and ill managed. When some of the teaching staff questioned about the nature of their employment which right now is contractual in nature, they were told to think of this college and this job as a stepping stone or apprenticeship/ internship for their future ( real) employment or in simple langauge 'experience gaining opportunity'. No proper means of recruitment and permanent nature of employment has been established in this college yet. Their payscale is extremely low for a public aided college. It's  infrastructure and  administration needs to be  taken care by the government as most of the students are from rural tea gardens and far away villages of Darjeeling. With so many students and a few remaining government aided college, this college needs to be run properly and transperantly so that students from marginalized backgrounds of Darjeeling can avail and afford public education. Afterall, education must be  the most important and crucial right of every citizen irrespective of their class, caste, religion, gender, sex etc.

The movement has taken a pivotal turn since the morning of 14th May 2022, after the students of the Ghoom Jorbunglow College joined their teachers in a parallel relay hunger strike at the college playground. So right now teachers under the non political banner of Ghoom Jorbunglow College staff welfare organization and the students of the said college are staging a protest relay hunger strike together demanding the immediate state aided recognition of Ghoom Jorbunglow College.

Looking at the volatile situation of Darjeeling where GTA election issue is on the heat, this movement of Ghoom Jorbunglow college teaching staffs,  non staffs and students will act as a litmus test for a definite political realisation on peoples part and more intricately on the part of political parties of Darjeeling in particular and West Bengal in general. The realisation being education to be understood as a basic human right and not as a form of any pre-attained privilege and  the need to fight and raise voice against all forms of corruption, nepotism, privatisation and political appropriation of education system happening around our very own eyes. This movement is an indicator that institutional resistance is slowly ripening and more centrality and importance is being pressed upon the  nature of employment and the terms of employment for any sort of labour and services. This college and it's teachers have been facing this problem since it's very inception. They are fed up of being sandwiched between the institutional inefficiency of autonomous boards such as DGHC and GTA and the indifferent attitude of West Bengal government. Their call of protest being #Shiksha_sadak_ma which translates to ' Knowledge on the Streets.'

It's time that the issue of  education becomes a central social and  political agenda for the people of Darjeeling and this country as the drop out rate of students especially from marginalized sections of our society has been constantly dropping in quantity and quality with rampant cuts in public funding and privatisation of education. In order to change our future we must act now  to strengthen the education system or else it will be too late and the damages will be extremely regressive and lethal for generations to come.