Govt To Give Rs 1,000 Ex-Gratia For Dooars Tea Garden Workers

Kolkata: The Union Government will give a one-time ex-gratia payment of Rs 1,000 each to the workers of the closed tea gardens in Dooars in West Bengal in view of the festival season. A total of 15,670 workers are on the payroll of 13 closed gardens and the total outgo will be Rs 1.6 crore approximately. The payment will be made from Oct 16. It might be noted that the gardens in Dooars, which are open and in running condition, have already paid bonuses to their workers as per the industry-level bonus contract attained in September. The demand was placed for an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2,000 each to the workers of the closed gardens. It might be noted that the workers of the closed gardens in Kerala too had appealed for a similar ex-gratia payment on the occasion of Onam festival some time ago.