Govt may allow workers to take over ailing tea gardens

KOLKATA: The Central government has identified takeover — either by workers or a new promoter — as the most definitive route to revive the 38 closed tea gardens in the country.

The government is also mulling bringing in changes in the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, to help workers of such gardens to form co-operatives and run them.

There are some 38 closed tea gardens in the country of which 20 are in Kerala, 15 in West Bengal and three in Assam.
For smooth takeover by a new promoter the government has plans to draw up a formula with active support from banks and trade unions. The Union commerce ministry has directed Tea Board to appoint a consultant, who will come up with the proposed formula.

Incidentally, the Union commerce ministry has received a few proposals from trade unions, both Citu and Intuc, for running some of the closed tea gardens in West Bengal and Kerala on a workers’ co-operative model. The basic idea is to pluck tea leaves from these gardens and sell them to bought leaf factories to recover the cost of production. These proposals are currently being scrutinised by Tea Board.

“Workers of closed tea gardens may have to make some sacrifices for turning around these gardens. Banks, too, will have to play a major role for reviving these gardens. In fact, I am meeting the banking secretary on next Friday to discuss this issue,” said Jairam Ramesh, Union minister of state for commerce.

The Indian tea industry, however, is sceptical about government’s recent move. “The special purpose tea fund (SPTF) was announced by Union commerce minister Kamal Nath, in September 2004.

But nothing has been disbursed yet. The government has kept November 1 as the zero date for disbursing the first tranche of money. If this is the pace of work, we doubt how fast the revival can take place. The government can takeover these gardens, which are hugely overmanned, and run them. That will be a much easier option,” a senior tea industry officials told ET.

Mr Ramesh does not comply to the industry’s view of government acquiring these gardens. The government had once burnt its fingers by taking over four ailing tea gardens of West Bengal. These gardens were taken over by Tea Trading Corporation of India according to provisions of Tea Act, 1953.

Subsequently, TTCI became sick and went into liquidation. The industry accepts that these gardens should be revived to increase overall tea production and address the issue of unemployment. “Domestic tea consumption is increasing at a rate of 3% and there should be enough teas to meet this growing demand,” the industry officials added.