West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee warns of takeover of tea gardens

MALBAZAR: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today warned that the state government would take over tea gardens if their owners failed to operate them properly.

"Those who are running the tea gardens properly, we will help them. But those tea garden owners, who are closing their tea gardens all of a sudden and without even giving back the provident fund money to the employees, are not doing the right thing," the chief minister said.

She said the state government would take over the closed tea garden in that eventuality and give it to someone else through management system, Banerjee said addresssing a programme.

The Chief minister said she had ordered resumption of drinking water and electricity supply to the closed tea gardens.

The state government has ordered a CID probe into the alleged non-payment of wages to workers at the Bagrakot tea garden of Duncan Industries in north Bengal.