Indiscriminate issuance of job cards under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to tea garden labourers has hit the tea industry in Barak Valley, in south Assam, and in entire Tripura.
As job cards are being issued to tea garden labourers, the tea industry is facing labour shortage in Barak Valley and in the neighbouring state of Tripura.
Tea industry sources said that due to issuance of job cards absenteeism has risen many folds in past few months as tea garden labourers are preferring NREGS jobs.
In Tripura alone, which has nearly 14,000 registered tea garden labourers, the industry is facing labour shortage of around 40 per cent, sources added. Tripura is the 5th largest tea producing state in the country and has 60 tea estates and around 4,000 small tea growers.
Production in almost 70 per cent of the tea gardens in the Barak Valley has too been affected due to the present labour crisis. Barak Valley as more than 100 tea gardens. The tea industry of Brahmaputra Valley too is facing such a problem but to a lesser extent, said sources.
Consultative Committee of Plantation Association (CCPA) of Barak Valley has written to the district administration of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts and pleaded to intervene into the matter. It has stated in its letter to the district administrations that issuance of job cards to tea garden labourers "has caused shortage of work force" of the tea industry.
