 "Bidyananda Barkakoty appointed as new vice-chairman of Tea Board")
The Tea Board of India, in its 227th board meeting held today in Kolkata, elected Bidyananda Barkakoty as its new vice-chairman. Barkakoty’s tenure would begin from April 1, 2016 and would span till March 31, 2017.
Barkakoty is a mechanical engineer by qualification and a tea planter by profession having his own plantations at Golaghat, in Assam. He is the past chairman of North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) and held the office for six years. Presently he is advisor to NETA, an executive committee member of Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA) and also president of Tea Vision, an NGO. He belongs to one of the oldest tea planters’ families of Assam and is the fifth generation to continue in tea plantation.
Listing out his priorities to achieve after assuming office, Barkakoty said: “Price realisation has not kept pace with the rise in cost of production. I would like to resolve this issue for survival of the tea industry.” He also said he would strive to strengthen the research and development centres of tea, notably the Tocklai Tea Research Institute (TTRI), and UPASI Tea Research Foundation (UPASI TRF).
