North Bengal tea to be branded

Jalpaiguri, Jul 10 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh has announced that tea produced in North Bengal would soon get a new identity.

Mr Ramesh said the new logo would be 'North Bengal Tea'.

Talking to the newsmen at Jalpaiguri Tea Auction Center (JTTAC) here, he rued that despite efforts of the state and Centre, the tea gardens were still in a miserable condition.

Stressing on the revival of the tea gardens spreading over 16,000 hectares of land, he said Centre had allocated Rs 1400 crore for the project, to be utulised in 15 years.

He said altough the tea of North Bengal had the potential, the tea gardens were as old as 40 to 100 years.

Mr Ramesh also emphasised on the hazards faced by small tea rowers in producing and selling their tea, and said that the government should encourage them to set up more co-operative tea processing factories in the region.

The minister said he was interacting with the Chairman of Tea Board of India (TBI) to find a solution.

Expressing concerns over the matter, he said inadequate pricing system and lack of bank finance has made the workers distressed but hoped the cooperative tea factory would provide a solution.

Apart from this, he also encouraged the growers to produce rubber and spice.

UNI XC PP SP VJ RS1726