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Mohan Padmanabhan

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Kolkata Feb. 19 The Tea Board has already received some 300 applications from tea companies (out of a total of 700) for assistance under the newly set up Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) to lift the tea industry's fortunes. Some 70 per cent of this 300 applications account for nearly 8,000 hectares. The target for replantation is 2.12 lakh hectares.

Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce, told Business Line the fund was expected to become operational from June 25, in Guwahati, at a formal signing ceremony between the Tea Board (for the Government) and the beneficiary tea company, heralding the first disbursement under SPTF.

According to Mr Basudeb Banerjee, Chairman of the Tea Board, the new initiative to prop up small size tea gardens (for benefiting small growers in Assam) on a cooperative basis has now taken shape. The sizes of these factories have now been brought down to between 200 kg and 500 kg, from the normal 2,000 kg-20,000 kg size, which would make the job much easier. The Minister said once the small project was found to be economically viable the programme would be replicated in other tea-growing regions.

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