Principal secretary of labour and employment, government of Tamil Nadu, Sunil Paliwal Monday assured the planters in the state to raise their problems with the chief secretary of the state Girija Vaidyanathan.
This assurance from Paliwal comes following a request from planters at the 65th annual conference of the planters association of Tamil Nadu that the committee, comprising secretaries of labour, forest and revenue departments, was to ensure discussion on issues affecting the industry and suggest relief.
But no such discussions had been held for several years now, the planters said.
Paliwal said he would request the chief secretary to revive the committee and include more principal secretaries of various departments in the committee.
He said he would try to come out with a roadmap for the sector in the wake of various issues being faced by the planters.
The principal secretary further said he would consider the demand to allow the use a portion of their plantations for cultivation of vanilla and medicinal crops.
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He said the state should have a law like Kerala has to utilise about five per cent of the plantation land for non-plantation activities.
Also, he promised to consider demands, including professional tax and property tax.
He asked the planters to coordinate with the agricultural department, municipal corporations and local administration to redress their grievances that include spending for healthcare and education of workers and their children.
Earlier, the vice-chairman of the association Sakher Nagarajan said the state has a planted area of 1.41 lakh hectares with 1.2 lakh growers and two lakh workers.
But, he added, the sector was facing a mismatch between the cost of production and price of the products.