The authorities of Dilkhusha Tea Garden under Goalbari union of Juri Upazila in Moulvibazar announced sudden closure of the garden on Friday and the manager of the establishment left the garden.
The workers, meanwhile, gathered in front of the manager鈥檚 office and protested at the closure.
According to some garden workers, Dilkhusha tea garden is run by Hamdard Tea Company.
There are 600 male and female workers in the garden, both permanent and temporary.
On the night of April 13, a plantation worker named Bipul Bunarji went to assistant manager Shiplu Talukdar鈥檚 bungalow and attempted to attack him with a locally made weapon.
At that time, he was detained and later handed over to the Juri police station.
Later, the workers brought him out to settle the matter out of court.
Bipul told the workers that Balai Basak, the chief clerk of the garden, had a conflict with Shiplu Talukdar, the assistant manager.
Local sources, however, said that Bipul was hired by clerk Balai Basak.
On Thursday, some workers went to the office of manager Saiduzzaman and requested him to sit with the two parties and resolve the matter in two days.
At that time, the manager told them that the meeting would be held on April 26.
At one stage, the workers became agitated due to the delay.
On Friday morning, the workers received the news of the closure of the garden. Later, they went to the manager鈥檚 office and found a garden closure notice pasted on the wall citing deterioration in the law and order situation as the reason for the closure.
The manager and his family members were not found in the bungalow.
Balai Basak also left the garden, the workers said.
On information, 200-300 workers gathered in the manager鈥檚 office and started protesting at the closure.
Later, other workers also joined them.
On information, upazila nirbahi officer Lusikant Hajong, inspector for investigation of Juri police station Humayun Kabir and chairman of Goalbari union parishad Abdul Qayum went to the garden.
They assured the protesting workers of taking necessary actions to resolve the problem immediately.
Contacted, manager Md Sayeeduzzaman said over the phone that the law and order situation worsened on Thursday.
He also said that on the advice of the senior officials of the company, the closure of the garden was announced.
The decision to reopen the garden will be made after a meeting with the representatives of all parties concerned, the manager said.
Upazila nirbahi officer Lusikant Hajong said, 鈥榃e are trying to solve the problem.鈥�
Humayun Kabir, inspector of Juri Police Station, said that the situation was normal now.
Efforts are on to resolve the issue, he added.
