'Darjeeling strike will hit tea exports'

NEW DELHI: Senior West Bengal Congress leader Sudip Bandopadhyay today said the indefinite strike in the Darjeeling hills for a separate Gorkhaland state will adversely affect tea exports and badly hit tea workers.

Bandopadhyay raised the issue with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, whom he met here today, and also criticised the nationwide general strike call given by trade unions on August 20, saying it would disrupt the birth anniversary celebrations of Rajiv Gandhi at least in his state.

"The indefinite strike call will jeopardise tea exports and hit the tea plantation business and the workers there, most of whom are daily wage earners," Bandopadhyay, state PCC vice president, told reporters here.

Gandhi, he said, was concerned over the fate of the tea garden workers during the strike period and wanted peace to be restored by the efforts of all the parties concerned in the hill areas of North Bengal.

Regarding the nationwide strike call, he said he had urged Left leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and Shyamal Chakraborty to defer the date of their protest, "but it is most unfortunate that they have not responded positively to the request".

Bandopadhyay, an important MLA in the state, said he would raise the issue with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow, ahead of the latter's meeting with Left leaders at the UPA-Left Committee meeting on the Indo-US nuclear deal.