Four tea gardens to be reopened in July

Kolkata, Jun 12 (UNI) Four closed tea gardens in North Bengal would be reopened in the first week of July.

''We are at the advanced stages of discussion with the garden owners and the banks for re-opening the gardens in West Bengal,'' Tea Board Chairman Basudeb Banerjee told UNI today. The gardens which would be reopened are Bharnobari, RedBank, Bamondanga-Tundu and Samting.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh yesterday said in a press communique, that efforts to reopen a closed tea estate in West Bengal had hit a roadblock after objections from the CPI(M)'s trade union wing CITU and the state government's apprehensions of trouble in the region.

Industry sources said the reopening of RedBank tea garden has seen road blocks with conflicting interests of the trade unions and garden onwer.

The first closed tea garden that was re-opened was Surendranagar Tea Estate on May 17.

Out of the 33 closed tea gardens across the country, 14 are located in West Bengal. The total area under hectarage in the 14 gardens was 6500, involving 12,000 families.

Of the remaining closed tea gardens, 17 were in Kerala and 2 in Asom.

The Centre is also in the process of developing a Rs 57.35 crore rehabilitation financial package for the closed tea gardens.

The package envisages restructuring of outstanding bank loans, waiver of Tea Board loans and penal charges towards PF dues, providing fresh working capital from banks and term loan facilities under the Tea Board's Special Purpose Tea Fund.

UNI