Manjolai crisis: Protest in Tirunelveli against forced retirement

MADURAI: Puthiya Tamilagam led by party chief K Krishnasamy staged a protest at Tirunelveli junction on Saturday condemning the forced retirement of tea estate workers from Manjolai.

Krishnasamy said the workers did not volunteer to retire from the Manjolai tea estate, but they were forced by the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation (BBTC) to vacate from the estate. If the corporation did not cancel such so-called voluntary retirements of the workers by July 13, the cadres along with the dejected workers would lock the office of the Labour Welfare Department. Many officials held talks with the workers, but the talks provided them no solace.

Conditions were imposed on the grounds of the reserve forest and many village goers in the hilly areas of Manjolai were suffering.

Moreover, he said if the estate workers were ill-treated continuously, Puthiya Tamilagam would organise a widespread protest.

If any company gets wound up, its employees need to be provided with adequate compensation as per law. Therefore, a worker should be provided with compensation claims to a minimum of Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore. The workers, who solely rely on the tea estate, which became their ancestral homeland, had been living for generations in Manjolai.

Hence, the BBTC should only have to move away from Manjolai and not the workers. The Tirunelveli Collector had recently arranged a camp for the workers for a change of address to displace them, but the workers did not attend it. The government is trying to create tourism in Manjolai and with this intent, the workers were forced to vacate, he said.