Tripura: TFDPC sets example of profit sharing

Agartala, Aug 12: With the change of management policy, Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation (TFDPC) has emerged as one of the few profit-making Public Sector Undertakings sharing the profits with the poor labourers.

The forest managers of Tripura might not have done anything to settle the rights of tribals displaced from their land but they have started paying their labourers better wages after about three decades of its creation.

TFDPC Managing Director Dr V K Bahuguna told the sources that the corporation had earned its highest-ever profit in 2005 which also meant better wages for more than 6,000 tribal and non-tribal labourers.

The tribals of Tripura practised the traditional Jhum (slash-and-burn) cultivation, which the government did not approve of, since it wanted to establish rubber plantations.

Parimal Das, a resident of Saidapar village in North Tripura, was one of the first persons to be hired by TFDPC in 1976 and is now earning about Rs 300 per day because of a policy change in the corporation.

''The TFDPC was set up in 1976 as an undertaking of the state government with equity participation from the Tripura forest department and the Centre, with an initial capital investment of Rs 10 lakh and authorised capital of Rs five crore. The major objective was the rehabilitation of Jhum practitioners to rubber plantations,'' Dr Bahuguna said.

The corporation came into existence when the Centre, in the mid-seventies, proposed to instil professional business enterprise culture in the forest departments of the country.

The primary aim of this policy, adopted on the recommendation of National Commission on Agriculture, was to give a fillip to the productivity from the forests for meeting the needs of the increasing population, Dr Bahuguna said.

The underlying principle was that in the scenario of rising population, unless greater production was achieved, the larger aim of forest and wildlife conservation could not be achieved. It has also been scientifically proved that no eco-system can be sustainable unless it is sufficiently productive.

Accordingly, in 1983, the state government set up another company - Tripura Rehabilitation and Plantation Corporation (TRPC) - entrusting it the responsibility of rehabilitation. So, TFDPC's mandate was restricted to managing plantations.

Dr Bahuguna revealed that rubber plantations on leased forest land started earning profits for TFDPC in 2001. However, the profits did not percolate down to the poor labourers. The workers, who had to dig at least 25 pits or plant 38 rubber saplings daily, besides clearing up the forest, were paid a paltry sum of Rs 50 only. The workers were supposed to be paid an incentive of Rs 1.50 for each additional pit dug or sapling planted. However, the dues were seldom paid.

''We were in meserable condition as there was no certainty of payment. We worked without any rest from morning to noon each day and later pulled rickshaws or carted vegetables to make both ends meet,'' Rajesh Shukladas, another TFDC worker rued.

Things started changing in 2002, when, though the daily wages were still Rs 50 for digging 16 pits or planting 20 saplings, the workers started getting Rs 3 for each additional pit dug and Rs 2.50 for each additional sapling planted. Presently, the workers collect latex also. As of April 2005, they get Rs 60 as daily wages for collecting 60 litres of latex. Besides, they are paid Rs nine for every additional three litres of latex collected.

''The net profit for 2005-06 is expected to exceed the target. TFDPC has paid Rs 35 lakh to workers as part of the profit-sharing policy till November 2005. The state government has stopped funding the corporation following the growing profit trend,'' Chairman of TFDPC Jashbir Tripura said.

TFDPC had already paid Rs 26,71,200 as three per cent interim dividend for the year 2002-03 to the state government and Rs 88,500 to the Centre. The corporation was now contemplating the releasing of degraded forest land for rubber cultivation under the Rubber Mission for rehabilitating tribal Jhum cultivators.

Besides rubber cultivation, it had set up an industrial estate on the outskirts of Agartala with five small-scale units based on treating rubber wood and rubber-based units, including finishing and packaging units.

''We solicit partnership from interested entrepreneurs for setting up more rubber and bamboo-based joint ventures. As part of the expansion plans, TFDPC will set up two more wood factories at Dharmanagar and Udaipur for manufacturing products from teak and other timbers,'' Mr Das said.

UNI