Centre to take Bengal's help in tea gardens' revival

The central government will soon send a proposal to the West Bengal government for setting up a monitoring committee to facilitate the handing over the management of most of the closed tea gardens to new owners.

Earlier this month, in a meeting Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jairam Ramesh had with the Tea Board and other stakeholders, there was an indication that at least five closed tea gardens were likely to reopen by July 2007. But the low success rate in West Bengal may have led the ministry to rethink this.

Sources said the central government was looking at invoking Section 16D or 16E of the Tea Act in most gardens. While 16D pertains to handing over the management after an enquiry, under 16E, the Centre can hand over the management without an enquiry if the garden is closed for three months or more.

Jairam Ramesh said discussions would be held with the state government to put in place a mechanism to ensure the new owners could run the tea gardens. Sources said preference would be given to large tea groups. They indicated that the Goodricke group had evinced interest in taking over one of the tea gardens.

Of the 33 closed gardens in the country, five have reopened in Kerala while five more are expected to open by the middle of next month. In West Bengal, of the 14 closed gardens, only one has reopened. Sources said another three of the 13 closed gardens could be reopened. For the rest, Section 16D or 16E could be invoked, sources added.

However, the central government seems determined to reopen the estates. The central government-approved rehabilitation package for the closed tea gardens was expected to be notified shortly. Ramesh said for the Chamurchi estate, a workers' co-operative with professional management might be put in place.

To a request from State Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya for a rehabilitation package for workers, Ramesh said the allocation for social welfare in the tea gardens had been increased from Rs 5 crore to Rs 50 crore in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. He said the first tranche of funds would go to the 30,000 families affected by the closure of tea gardens across the country.

Ramesh was speaking at the launch of the Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) for replanting in North Bengal. The Rs 4,760-crore SPTF will be spend over 15 years.

Basudeb Banerjee, chairman, Tea Board of India, said there were 262 applications for SPTF across the country from 130 companies. Of these, 81 were from West Bengal, out of which 45 were found eligible.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was also present on the occasion.