Excess and fallow tea garden land to be utilised for tea tourism

Kolkata, May 5 (UNI) The West Bengal government would utilise the excess, fallow or abondoned land of the tea gardens in the North Bengal for tea tourism and other infrastructure development.

The government was also trying to reopen the closed gardens by scouting for new garden owners, interested in takeover.

Expressing concern over the closed gardens in North Bengal, state Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen here today said, '' We are trying to utilise the unused land available in the operational as well as closed or abandoned tea gardens in the state. '' Currently there are 17 closed or abandoned tea gardens in the state.

'' Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb along with various state government officials has met various tea garden owners to discuss the matter. The excess land of the gardens can be used for tea tourism to boost the economy of the region as well as to generate scope of employment for the people in the tea gardens, '' said Mr Sen, speaking at the 41st AGM of the Tea Association of India(TAI).

The unutilised land of the gardens might be used to build schools and other social infrastructure of the gardens.

Speaking about the state's strategy to reopen the gardens and overcome the crisis in connection with the closure of the tea gardens in North Bengal, he said the government was concerned about lakhs of workers, who have become unemployed due to the closure of several gardens.

'' The crisis in the tea industry is caused by rising input cost, declining productivity and non-economic age of the tea bushes, '' he said.

However, there were certain legal problems, which were hindering the process of the takeover of the closed gardens.

'' We need to talk to the stakeholders to tackle the legal problems, '' he said.

The fate of 30,000 workers directly employed (and their one lakh dependents), is linked with these gardens, the managements of which have piled up liabilities worth Rs 237 crore in provident fund and Bank dues.

These gardens have locked up an area of 11,449 hectare, which was under tea cultivation. Many of these gardens have remained closed since 1999 when a crisis gripped the tea industry.

'' We are trying to give some relief to the workers of the closed gardens. The workers of these gardens would be considered as BPL and given food for work. They would get relief through Antordoy Yojana also, '' he said.

UNI