President of workers co-operative arrested in a murder case, Mahabir Tea Estate in deep crisis, wages not paid

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, January 25, 2023

Uncertainty is prevailing among the workers of the Mahabir Tea Estate as they have not received their wages for last week as the police arrested Bhanu Pratap Lodhi, president of the Cha Sramik Samabai Samity that runs the garden in connection with the killing of TIPRA Motha leader Pranayjit Namasudra. Lodhi and five others are now in police custody.

One of the leading tea gardens in the area Mahabir Tea Estate faced a crisis when the owners left it following a dispute among the partners about four years ago. Since then the Cha Sramik Samabai Samity took over the management and was running the garden.

The garden has 370 regular workers and another 200 irregular workers. In addition to that, 26 Babu Staff is also there. Madan Goala, a member of the Bagan Panchayat told reporters that there are 2000 people dependent on them. All of them are now facing a serious crisis as there is none to release the wages. Two weeks' wages for last month also remained pending.

The factory gets closed due to managerial problems and the wages of the workers were paid by selling green leaves. A discussion was going on with a company for taking over the garden but all become uncertain after the arrest of Bhanu Pratap Lodhi.