Centre to reopen four closed gardens by mid July

Kolkata, Jun 14 (UNI) The Centre will reopen four tea gardens out of the total 14 closed gardens in West Bengal by mid of next month.

Speaking to mediapersons here today, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jairam Ramesh, ''Dharnobari and Red bank tea estate will be opened on June 29.'' The owner of Dharnobari estate would approach Allahabad Bank in one week and the District Magistrate of Jalpaiguri would conduct an inquiry into the financial mismanagement as alleged by the tea estate trade union.

There are 1856 workers in Dharnobari, spread around 725 hectares, and the 368 hectares Red Bank tea estate has a total of 881 workers.

Information&Board Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and External Affairs Miniter Pranab Mukherjee along with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya would be present on the reopening day.

Mr Ramesh said the two other tea gardens, Kalchini and Raimatown, would be reopened on July 16.

A liquidation case had been filed in Calcutta High Court. Tea Board Chairman Basudeb Banerjee have met the owners of these two gardens and had asked the current owner to make an appeal in the Calcutta High Court for the revival package being worked out by the Centre.

Mr Ramesh said,''Not much progress has been made in connection with the other tea gardens.'' Chamruchi gardens would be run by the workers coperative, he said.

The Raipur and Sikharpur-Bandapur tea estate would be reopened under Sec 16 D of the Tea Board Act, under which the board can handover the estate to a new owner.

The board would had also hold discussions with the banks and owners of Chinchula, Samsingh, Bamandonga and Tondoo tea estates.

UNI