Kolkata, Mar 5 (PTI) Members of the Trinamool Congress trade union on Sunday held protests in tea garden belts of north Bengal, demanding the release of funds by the Centre for improving the working condition of estates and economic uplift of plantation workers.

They held sit-ins near the residences of BJP MLAs and MPs from the northern districts of West Bengal.

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Hundreds of Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress workers staged a demonstration near the residence of BJP MLA Durga Murmu in Phansidewa in Darjeeling district, and also near the house of MP Raju Bista.

Similarly, a protest was organised near the residence of BJP chief whip Manoj Tigga at Madarihat in Alipurduar.

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TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had recently asked his party workers to hold protests outside the residences of Union ministers, BJP MPs and MLAs over issues such as the non-payment of central funds for social welfare schemes and poor condition of tea garden workers, among others.

Trinamool Congress leader Ritabrata Banerjee claimed that the Centre's Rs 1,000 crore package for tea garden workers is “yet to improve their conditions in north Bengal, and they are also not getting DA and PF dues".

During her budget speech for the 2021-22 fiscal, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had proposed Rs 1,000 crore for the welfare of tea workers, especially women and their children, in Assam and West Bengal.

When contacted, Tigga told PTI that the TMC is “politicising the issue by blaming the BJP, which is not at the helm in Bengal.

"Why is the TMC dispensation silent on holding a tripartite meeting, consisting of tea garden owners, labourers and the government to take up all the issues, including the crisis faced by the sector in the state?

"The TMC government had made a budgetary provision of Rs 100 crore for the welfare of tea garden workers in the state. What has the state done with that resource as there is no visible sign of uplift of plantation labourers in the recent times" he claimed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)