Oct 13 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Silchar:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
The INTUC-affiliated Barak Cha Shramik Union (BCSU) has alleged that four persons have died of starvation over the past week in Bhuvan Valley Tea Estate in Assam’s Cachar district.
The garden is owned by Kolkata-based Bhuvan Valley Tea Company Limited. The dead have been identified as Laksmi Shobor (25) and her one-day-old child, Koushalya Bauri (65) and Gauri Paul (60). Many others are said to be critical.
Sources in BCSU on Monday said tea garden manager R S Tiwari had left for Kolkata on September 27. “The manager has fled,“ said assistant general secretary of the organization Dina Nath Baroi.The workers have not got their wages and ration for the past three weeks, he said and added that lack of health facilities in the garden has made matters worse.
In 2012, the same garden was in news after a fourmonth-long lockout allegedly caused death by starvation of at least 12 workers, including four women.