Lockout withdrawn in Pathini Tea Estate, work to resume today

Silchar: Pathini Tea Estate in Assam’s Karimganj district, whose management authority had declared suspension of operations in the tea garden on Thursday night, witnessed the resumption of its work on Sunday after the decision to withdraw the lockout was taken at a meeting in Silchar on Saturday.
A meeting was held at the assistant labour commissioner’s office in Silchar on Saturday in which the lockout issue was discussed.Labour union’s assistant labour commissioner Hemanta Kalita, Karimganj additional district commissioner A R Mazumder, Assam Tea Corporation’s chairperson and Barak Cha Sramik Union’s general secretary Rajdeep Goala, Union president Kripanath Mallah, and representatives from tea garden union were present during the meeting. The decision to withdraw the lockout was finalised and it was also decided that the tea garden’s workers would be provided their wages for last week on Monday.
Talking to the media, Rajdeep Goala and Kripanath Mallah confirmed the decision to withdraw from the lockout. The union is committed to working for the rights and interests of tea garden workers, they said.
On Thursday night, the management authority of Pathini tea garden, owned by Kolkata-based D M Group, declared a sudden suspension of operation in the tea garden leaving nearly 1,300 workers in a jobless situation. Workers of the tea garden found the notice of the lockout on the tea estate’s gate on Friday.
The notice said problems were going on between the tea garden’s management body and its workers for the past many days and even though a few meetings were held to resolve the issue, nothing came fruitful out of them.