Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister for State Sukanta Majumdar on Thursday (November 20, 2025) raised the plight of workers of tea gardens in North Bengal and said that despite the Union government pre-publishing draft rules offour Labour Codes, the West Bengal government has not published it.
Mr. Majumdar claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not allowing the labour codes to be implemented and if that gets implemented then the daily wage of tea garden workers will be increased.
“There are no schools in about 42 tea gardens, about 17% houses lack electrification, about 19.3% houses have a very pathetic situation, only 60% tea gardens have healthcare facilities,” Mr. Majumdar said.
He also pointed out to the poor health care facilities in tea garden areas and said that the State Labour Department has requisitioned doctors for being deployed in tea garden areas. He said that even in a pathetic situation in tea gardens, the West Bengal government has asked the tea garden owners to provide 30% of the garden’s land for miscellaneous activities such as tourism.
“But when the Rajbanshis, Gorkhas and Adivasis are asking for permanent land deeds for claiming ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’ but they are not given,” Mr. Majumdar said.
Labour law experts, however, say that the new labour codes will not increase wages of workers of tea garden areas and significantly diluted labour protections, and for tea plantation workers. There are 276 big tea gardens and about 5,000 small tea gardens that employs lakhs of workers in the garden.
“Tea plantation workers are already covered under the existing Minimum Wages Act, yet the State Government has consistently failed to notify minimum wages, and this statutory duty remains unchanged even under the labour codes,” Advocate of Calcutta High Purbayan Chakraborty, who is also an expert in labour law said.
Mr. Chakraborty said that enforcement of the labour codes, therefore, cannot remedy a failure that lies squarely with the State.
“Further, the labour codes have significantly diluted labour protections, and for tea plantation workers, the rights earlier secured under the Plantations Labour Act have been deeply weakened. Hence, the claim that implementing the labour codes will improve living conditions of plantation workers of North Bengal is entirely misplaced and contrary to the legal reality,’ Mr. Chakarborty said.
On the issue of Darjeeling hills, Mr. Majumdar said that there are some long-standing demands of Gorkhas, which require a permanent political solution.
“In order to have a healthy political situation, the Union Government has formulated a tripartite discussion. He said that the Chief Minister is not willing to have a solution, rather she is giving money to GTA so that corruption can occur,” he added.
He claimed that the State government was delaying the process of releasing funds for flood victims even when the Central Government had allocated the funds and the documents being given to the District Magistrate of Darjeeling by the victims.