Rally in Tentulia to protest the torture of tea farmers

SK Doyle, Tentulia: A meeting was held at Tetulia in Panchagarh to demand fair price of tea leaves and protest against physical abuse of small tea growers at Morgan Tea Factory. The protest was organized by the Small Farmers Torture Committee on Wednesday afternoon at the Majhipara Bidirectional High School ground on Shalbahan Road in the upazila. The meeting was presided over by Advocate Rafiqul Islam Rafiq Mandal and addressed as the chief guest. Anisuzzaman Pramanik, Belal Munshi, Azizul Haque, Habibur Rahman Hobi, Hamida Begum, Emdadul, Hanif, Saddam, among others spoke on the occasion. Thousands of tea growers from the district and Tentulia Upazila took part in the protest. Speakers at the meeting said that the owners of tea factories in Panchagarh have created a syndicate by not buying tea leaves from small tea farmers at a fair price and have created misery for the farmers. They are persecuting the farmers like the English indigo planters. Raw tea leaves extracted from the garden have to be sold at a loss rather than the cost of production in the factory. 40-50% cutting leaves with various excuses. When he went to protest, he stopped taking leaves, sometimes insulted and took him out of the factory and physically abused him. Amarkhana Nuruzzaman Nuru has filed a false case accusing the chairman of physically abusing two tea farmers including Omar Farooq at the Morgan Tea Factory adjacent to the board office in Panchagarh on Tuesday. He immediately withdrew the false case and strongly protested against the torture of tea farmers. The speakers also said that Newaz Chishti, the owner of Morgan Tea Factory, the villain of Panchagarh Tea Syndicate. He was the main leader of the syndicate. For so long, he has been selling tea leaves at a loss without getting a fair price. Last Tuesday, 22 factories in the district were declared closed indefinitely on false allegations of attack by farmers. Although the tea leaf purchase committee has fixed Tk 18, the factory owners are also showing their thumbs up to the government's representative deputy commissioner. They are buying raw tea leaves for 12-13 rupees instead of 18 rupees. At the time, the speakers warned that unless the owner of the Morgan Tea Factory apologizes for torturing the Chishti farmers, we will not give up the Morgan Tea Factory. If necessary, we will cut the tea garden and plant another. At this time they raised several demands.