The Hindu Business Line : Tea Board issues show-cause notice to closed gardens

In order to operationalise the recommendation of an official committee to invoke Section 16 (E) of the Tea Act, 1953, for taking over the management of the closed tea gardens to hand over to new management, the Government has taken four concrete steps, the Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, said on Monday.

Talking to Business Line here on the state of affairs of closed tea gardens numbering 33 out of the 1,600 tea gardens across the country, Mr Ramesh said on October 4, the Tea Board had issued show-cause notice to the owners of closed tea gardens in Assam, Kerala and West Bengal, giving them 10 days to respond as to why Section 16 (E) could not be invoked.

This particular section gives the power to the Central Government to change the management of the tea gardens, which remain fully-closed for more than three months.

Steps taken

Secondly, he said, the Tea Board has written to all bankers of the closed tea gardens, apprising them on invoking the relevant section of the Act and prior to that ascertaining whether any closed tea garden owners have approached the banks for restructuring of the outstanding dues as per the provisions of the rehabilitation package announced by the Government.

Thirdly, Mr Ramesh said the Tea Board had appointed legal firm Fox and Mandal to draft the Expression of Interests and pre-qualification bids through public advertisement, and finally the Tea Board has intention of identifying valuers to carry out asset evaluation of the closed tea gardens.

‘Transparent manner’

Officials said that the Committee on closed tea gardens under the Chairmanship of the Additional Secretary (Plantation) Department of Commerce, Mr O.P. Arya, was set up in August 16, 2007, for evaluating the proposals received for change in management of the closed tea gardens, spread over Kerala (16), Bengal (15) and Assam (two). Out of these, they said, nine tea gardens in Kerala and one in West Bengal had since reopened, while the two gardens in Assam got stuck in court cases.

“We have received good number of offers from tea garden owners with credibility for taking over closed tea gardens. But we do want to do the process in a transparent and legally sustainable manner,” Mr Ramesh said, adding that he has held extensive talks with the West Bengal Government on this, even as this particular section has not been invoked in 52 years.