Mamata Banerjee requests Centre,RBI to help tea garden workers in state

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today requested the Centre and RBI to help the tea garden workers in the state, claiming they were "dying due to demonetisation".

"On International Tea Day I would like to again request the Centre and RBI to extend a helping hand to the tea garden workers in Bengal.

"Tea garden workers are hungry and dying due to demonetisation note ban. RBI must immediately restore payments by our government through district magistrates," she said in a statement.

Banerjee yesterday accused the Narendra Modi government of "discriminating" against the state by depriving tea garden workers of their wages, while providing the same to workers in BJP-ruled Assam.

"It is shocking that the central government is ruthlessly discriminating against Bengal and its toiling tea garden workers by starving them of cash wages, while giving cash from RBI to workers in BJP-ruled state of Assam," she had alleged.