Alipurduar administration holds meet with 1,500 tea garden workers

Kolkata: In a bid to disseminate information about the various development projects of the Mamata Banerjee government among the tea garden workers, the Alipurduar district administration on Sunday held a meeting with more than 1,500 such workers and their family members.

"The meeting titled 'Apnar Baagane Proshashon/Sarkar Baagan ke Duar' (government at your tea garden), aimed at grievance redressal and awareness among the tea garden workers, is the brain child of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who held the administrative meeting at Alipurduar on July 11. She had advised us to take the administration closer to the public and to bridge the information and awareness deficit which was prevailing in the tribal and tea garden belts of the district," said Nikhil Nirmal, District Magistrate, Alipurduar.

It may be mentioned that there are 60 tea gardens in Alipurduar district, among which 28 are stressed, including six closed gardens.

"We will first hold these programmes at the stressed gardens and then do the same in the open ones," Nirmal said.

The meeting venue at one of the closed tea gardens in the district consisted of the entire administrative machinery of Alipurduar, comprising 16 line departments who set up stalls where flagship schemes of the government such as Kanyashree, Rupashree, Anandadhara, Mission Nirmal Bangla, Banglar Awas Yojana & Manabik Pension Schemes were advertised.

Beneficiaries enrolled and grievances, if any, were addressed on the spot. Pamphlets and banners highlighting the schemes were put up in Hindi and Bengali language.

In addition, a beneficiary distribution programme was held where SC/ST certificates, disability certificates, cycles, medicated mosquito nets etc. were distributed.

As most of the tea garden workers are Adivasis who speak Sadri language, the DM even tried his hand at the language during his address and later spoke in Hindi which is very similar to Sadri.