Centre to revive closed tea gardens in West Bengal

The Central Government has decided to take over few of the closed tea gardens in West Bengals Siliguri District to revive them.

Siliguru (WB), Oct 7 : The Central Government has decided to take over few of the closed tea gardens in West Bengal's Siliguri District to revive them.

Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, who is in Siliguri to identify the tea gardens that need renewal, lamented the West Bengal Government for not taking care of the teagardens.

He said the Centre would take over the non-functional tea gardens under a 54-year-old law.

"We have already decided to invoke section 16 (E) of the Tea Act 1953, which empowers the Central Government to take over any tea garden that has been closed for more than three months for purposes of finding a new owner," Ramesh said.

He added that the attitude of the tea estate owners in the state is also disappointing, as a proposal to reopen closed tea gardens has received very little response.

The Centre has selected 13 such closed tea gardens for revival process in the beginning.

India's tea industry has been hit in recent years by high production costs and sluggish exports due to competition from producers such as Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Kenya.

Estate owners say falling international prices and stiff competition from other countries forces them to shut the tea gardens.

Last month, nine tea gardens out of 17 closed ones in Kerala were reopened consequent to the rehabilitation package announced by the government.

The owners of the closed tea gardens were asked to avail the package by the end of August 2007 and reopen the gardens expeditiously.

The Centre had announced a rehabilitation package on June 29 this year for 33 tea gardens, which were closed as on April 1, 2007. More than 30,000 workers employed in these gardens were affected due to their closure.

The package provides for restructuring of the outstanding bank dues, provision of fresh working capital with interest subsidy from the government, waiver of outstanding loan dues to Tea Board and settlement of Provident Fund dues in instalments.

ANI