CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP and CITU general secretary Tapan Sen has written a letter to Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, seeking her urgent intervention in the matter of rapidly deteriorating situation in tea estates in West Bengal. In the letter, dated November 24, Sen said that although profit of the tea garden owners are on the rise, the condition of plantation workers have been fast deteriorating. And the worst hit are the workers of tea estates "where either the gardens are closed down or abandoned by the owners". In the closed or abandoned gardens, the workers, mostly hailing from the most downtrodden section of society, are being deprived of almost everything -- their earnings, basic civic amenities and health services -- that are supposed to be provided by the garden management. And tea workers are remaining confined to the captive enclaves where government schemes like MGNREGA, and other basic utility services like water, health etc are virtually non-existent and non-operational with the workers having been thrown at the mercy of the management/owner, he said. "As on date, you must have been informed that around 29 tea gardens in West Bengal have been either closed/abandoned or in virtual undeclared functional closure of which six gardens had been closed/abandoned in the past couple of years. Majority of the gardens under closure/abandonment belong to major corporate houses like M/s Duncan Industries and M/s Alchemist. More than 40 thousand workers involving a population of at least two lakhs (if their family members are counted) are directly affected by hunger, acute malnutrition... Inevitable consequence has been procession of death due to hunger and the number is increasing every day," Sen said. He demanded that in such a situation the government must intervene on war-footing. The Tea Act empowers both the central and state governments to intervene and provides for takeover/assumption of control of the closed/abandoned tea gardens by central government in consultation with the state concerned. "Don't you feel in view of the death toll in the closed tea gardens increasing every day, the government must come forward to take such strong measures which only can deter the dubious business plan of the concerned tea garden owners to make money at the cost of human lives and destitution?" Sen said. He reminded the minister that "during your visit to Siliguri in May 2015, the leaders of All India Plantation Workers' Federation along with Joint Forum of All Trade Unions in Tea Gardens submitted a memorandum to apprise you about the tragic state of affairs in closed/abandoned tea estates of West Bengal and requested you to invoke appropriate actions". Appropriate measures by the prescribed authorities in regular manner as enshrined in the legislation alone can discipline the owners and restrain them from making closures/abandonment an instrument for pursuing business, he said, adding that "such dubious business plan is integral to habitual default in payment of wages to workers, deliberate default in provident fund, gratuity, bonus and other statutory obligations for the workmen and also default in payment of rent of land, payment of excise or other obligatory duties as per law -- all adversely affecting the development of the industry and public at large". "Considering the gravity of the situation, I urge upon you to take immediate actions to take over the closed and abandoned tea gardens in West Bengal for the sake of the industry as well as to save the workers and their family members from hunger and death," Sen said.