By Bijoy Handique (PNI)

 

Jorhat : Assam Labour Minister Pallav Lochan Das during his address as the chief guest on the occasion of 81st Annual General Meeting of Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA) that was held at the Jorhat Gymkhana Club called upon the veteran members and planters from the ATPA to cooperate with the government to solve their crisis and called to speak frankly to upgrade the loop holes between the management and workers for the greater benefit and development of the tea industry amicably for which the ministry of labour on behalf of the Assam Government with strict instruction from the chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and also from the Government of India all is ready to do so for the only profit making industry where the small tea growers plays a pivotal role for upliftment of economic scenario of the state.

 

You planter’s sons ,daughters, grandsons and kins involved with the tea industry for decades, you all know all about the industry since your birth, so you have a very big role to play even as the Chief Minster Assam instigating all the related departments to assist all possible help for their upliftment in the field of medical. Education, ration, communication, labour with proper livelihood for the community, said Pallav Lochan Das, the Minster of labour, Government of Assam here today.

 

Tea planters from various organizations among ABITA, NETA, NBTA, were among veteran planters Prabhat Kamal Bezbaruah, Arun Thekedar, Bidyanand Borkakoty, Dr. Nazrana Ahmed, Gautam Barooah, Rajib Baraooah, Raj Barooah raised the issue for rise in cost of production and increase of 30% Cess which is only imposed for the state of Assam.

 

Moreover NETA chief Bidyananda Borkakoty said that there is an imbalance in demand and supply for the tea industry for which we have to think twice, because of coloured tea the consumption of tea had gone down but at the same time we have to thank god that he has given us a huge domestic market but per capita consumption is very less. Tea Board opf India used to spend crore and crore of Rupees for marketing abroad, but Kenya, Sri Lanka do not have domestic market we should not bother about them and we should see to ourselves and may we follow China who sells 90% of their tea in domestic market whereas India also do to sell 80% of tea in our own domestic market, so there is every possibility to increase the per capita consumption of tea in domestic market here in India, said the NETA chief.

 

Earlier Prabhat Kamal Bezbaruah, the chairman-Tea Board of India spoke about the various issues that was concerning the industry since recent past, while Arun Kumar Ray (IPS) the vice chairman of Tea Board of India, Arun Thekadar-outgoing chairman of ATPA welcomed the new incoming chair person Dr. Mrs Nazrana Ahmed, Gautam Barooah-vice chairman-ATPA also spoke on the occasion. Meanwhile five tea gardens under ATPA were awarded for their outstanding performances for tea production, demand quality at various tea markets I recent days. Trophies and mementoes was handed over to the recipients by Pallav Lochan Das, the Labour Minister of Assam during the days program.