The Hindu Business Line : Tea fund payout hit by land lease snags

The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh (right), with the Tea Board Chairman, Mr Basudev Bannerjee, and the Tea Board Deputy Chairperson, Ms Roshni Sen, after a press conference in Kolkata on Saturday. A high-level meeting was held on the issue of closed tea gardens in West Bengal. —

Our Bureau

Kolkata, Feb. 16 Disbursements under the Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) in West Bengal are hampered due to complications in land lease agreement. Applications for assistance have been received from 100 tea gardens out of the 280 in the State.

Giving this information on Saturday, Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce, stated that Tea Board had been asked to examine the status of the lease agreement of 100 gardens and prepare a report within a week. Electronic auction of tea in Kolkata, the Minister informed, would start from December 2008.

Mr Ramesh held meetings earlier in the day with West Bengal Minister for Commerce and Industry Mr Nirupam Sen and Minister for Land and Land Revenue Mr Abdul Rezzak Molla to review the reopening of closed tea gardens. He told newspersons later that he had urged the West Bengal Government to adopt flexibility to allow tea estates to use five per cent of their lands for horticulture and tea tourism.

Mr Molla, however, pointed out that the present agreement permitted the lessee to use the land only for tea production and not any other purpose.

Mr Sen indicated that while Tea Board had so far invoked relevant provisions of Section 16 (E) of the Tea Act in respect of two closed tea estates, namely, Chinchula and Bamandanga-Tondu, the State Government cancelled lease agreements in the case of two others, namely, Kathalguri and Ramjhora, and several bids had been received from those keen on taking over these gardens.

The bids would be short-listed soon, he said. Also, henceforth, the cancellation of lease agreement and enforcement of Section 16(E) would be done concurrently and five gardens had been identified for the purpose.

Mr Ramesh said four gardens were involved in court cases and Tea Board had moved the court to have the cases resolved at the earliest to expedite disbursement of funds under SPTF. “We would like to move fast because the new tea season will start from March 16,” he said.

The West Bengal Commerce and Industry Minister said the State’s Land and Land Revenue Department would undertake a survey of small tea-growers in the State within three months.