The Hindu Business Line : Tea Board may take over 3 closed estates in Bengal

WEIGHING OPTIONS: The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh (right), and the Tea Board Chairman, Mr Basudeb Bannerjee, addressing a press conference in Kolkata on Thursday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata June 14 The Union Government is examining whether action can be taken against the owners of three tea estates located in Dooars area in northern part of West Bengal by invoking the provisions of the Section 16(D) of the Tea Board Act. The three tea estates are Raipur, Sikarpur and Bhandarpur together employing more than 2,000 workers.

Invoking of the provisions of Section 16(D) will mean the Tea Board will acquire the gardens and hand them over to new owners or new management. This is for the first time in Independent India that such action is being contemplated against the owners of any tea estate.

"The Chairman of Tea Board has been asked to examine how to proceed in the matter," Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce, told newspersons here on Thursday.

"We've reached the end of our patience and we're therefore contemplating action against the owners to protect the workers of the tea estates."

He conceded that the process would not be easy as the owners, in all probability, would go to court stop the Government move.

The Minister felt that Kerala presented a much better picture than West Bengal in so far as the reopening of the closed tea estates were concerned although, surprisingly, the political and trade union culture was the same in the two States.

In Kerala, five of the total number of 17 closed gardens had already been opened and eight others would be reopened soon while in West Bengal only one out of the 14 closed gardens could be reopened. He attributed this to the varying quality of tea garden owners and trade unions leaders in the two States.

Reopening 2 estates

Mr Ramesh who held a series of meetings with tea garden owners, Tea Board officials, bankers and trade union leaders earlier in the day, indicated that on June 29 two more closed tea estates in West Bengal, Bharnobari and Redbank, would be reopened.

While Bharnobari would be reopened under a new owner, Mr O.P. Agarwal, the country's second largest merchant exporter of tea and the existing owner of Redbank has promised to reopen his garden. Bharnobari, with a total area of 725 hectares employs 1,856 people, and Redbank, 368 hectares, 881 people.

It was pointed out that a move was afoot to reopen at least one tea estate, Chamurchi (462 hectares, 1047 employees), through the formation of a workers' cooperative.

He indicated that he had received commitment from the owners of two other tea estates, namely, Raimatang and Kalchini, about reopening the gardens on July 15. There was not much progress in respect of other gardens.

The Minister informed that the first batch of loan applications under the Special Purpose Tea Fund would be signed with 58 tea companies controlling 81 gardens in West Bengal and the total amount of loan would be Rs 37 crore.

In West Bengal, there were a total of 308 gardens.

The rehabilitation package for the closed gardens, as prepared by the Commerce Ministry, would come before the Finance Ministry for consideration on June 26 and it would be another two to three weeks for the scheme to be placed before Cabinet.

More Stories on : Tea | Sick Units | West Bengal

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