Date:07/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/07/stories/2007100754060900.htm

National

Bonus for closed tea gardens under study

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The Centre will consider a special festival grant for workers in closed tea gardens in West Bengal. The proposal entails a one-time payment of Rs. 2,000 to the 12,000 families of the 13 gardens closed in North Bengal.

The Tea Board will shortly send a proposal to the Union Commerce Ministry, which plans to follow-up the matter for an early release of the grant ahead of the festive season beginning with the Durga Puja on October 18.

The Rs. 2 crore allocation is to be made from the Centre’s 11th plan allocation for tea, which envisages increase in the spending on HRD to Rs. 50 crore from Rs. 6 crore of the 10th plan.

The 17,000 workers are employed in these closed gardens. They eke out a living on the Rs. 750 subsistence allowance they get from the West Bengal government. There have been many deaths in these tea gardens due to malnutrition and disease.

Takeover

Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said that he would take up the matter regarding the festival payout once he received the Tea Board proposal.

The Minister, who held meetings on the closed gardens in Jalpaiguri on Saturday said that the local Congress MLA, D.P. Ray has pleaded for the festival bonus for the distressed workers.

Mr. Ramesh also said that the process of invoking Section 16 (E) of the Tea Act, which empowers the Centre to takeover (for handing over to a new owner) any garden which has been closed for long, was being taken forward. This is the first time in the 54 years of the Act’s existence that the Union Commerce Ministry is taking steps to invoke this section after failing to reopen the gardens through talks with the present management.

Sources said the Tea Board has appointed Fox & Mandal, a solicitor and advocate firm, to draft expressions of interest and pre-qualification bids for bringing in new owners. Action has also been initiated to appoint accredited valuers for specific tea-gardens where they can be taken over by the Tea Board for finding a new owner.

Show-cause

The Tea Board, through a letter sent to garden owners on October 4, 2007 has asked them to show reasons within 10 days as to why Section 16 (E) should not be invoked against them.

They have also been asked to show documentary evidence if they have taken steps to reopen the estates.

Alongside, banks have been told to give their assessment of the owners and to examine whether steps have been taken for reviving the gardens under the package cleared by the Centre in June.