Tea workers, farmers agitating in Jhapa

Jhapa, August 15

Kuwadi Devi Tea Estate workers in Kumarkhod, Jhapa,  have been agitating since Saturday saying estate proprietor Suresh Agrawal failed to implement the government-set minimum wage of Rs 253 per day.

The agitating workers have pulled down shutters and have been staging a sit-in at the industry. The tea estate has 40 permanent and 160 temporary workers at present.

The labourers’ leader Jagat Paudel said that the management had agreed to provide the government-fixed minimum salary to all workers. “But the management has only been paying minimum wage to permanent workers, which is why we have started the agitation,”  Paudel said.

He warned that the agitation would continue unless their demand was met.

Meanwhile, a group of small tea farmers has been staging a sit-in at Nepal Tea and Coffee Development Board Regional Office, Birtamode for the past one week.

Small tea farmers have waged the agitation saying that they were not given the right price for green tea leaves.