Tea Industry: A Planter’s Perspective- Part IV- ‘Tea Estates – Misplaced Identity’

Tea Estates – Misplaced Identity

This story of the Tea Estates would be incomplete without mentioning some instances cited by the planters/owners themselves. Every planter wants his production to rise, but for that, the system within which his estate operates should have to be conducive. The infrastructural support base must be provided by the different sectors of the government. One such planter happened to meet a minister on board a flight. The planter narrates here the incident:

“Once on my return from the tea estate, I happened to meet a Cabinet Minister in the then Tarun Gogoi cabinet travelling to Kolkata on the same flight as me. Incidentally, I was allotted a seat next to him. During the one hour flight I took up the issue of the difficult situation the tea estates were in and how it could be overcome systematically. The one suggestion I put forward to him was to create a separate Ministry for Tea in the State Cabinet wherein any and all issues relating to the industry could be put forward for quicker resolution. Since, Tea forms a very important industry to Assam and also the largest employer in the state, this I thought should click. He concurred, but only for those few minutes, it seems as we never heard of it ever again. The Minister is no more and I would be more than glad to see anyone raising this again with the present dispensation.”

Tea, as we all know is an agricultural produce and should be treated at par with the other agricultural produce in India under the Ministry of Agriculture. The erstwhile Labour Minister, Government of Assam Pallav Lochan Das, before being elected to the Lok Sabha, now an MP of the ruling party in his speech in Lok Sabha on the 2^nd of July this year echoed that the state of Tea Gardens were precarious and it needed an MSP (Minimum Support Price) for the produce. He also said that Tea should be a part of Ministry of Agriculture as there are at least one lac small & marginal farmers who are harvesting tea and are badly affected due to very low prices of green leaf. Similarly, plans are afoot to fix an MSP for Green Leaf @ Rs 25/- across board in Assam as told to PTI by Rameshwar Teli an MP from Assam.

We all know that loud noises are made but in reality what really happens is known to all and sundry. One has to remain satisfied with the thought that the lawmakers have it somewhere in their mind. A planter in the business of tea in southern Assam since the last two decades said, “I raise these issues as a planter who has been a victim of labour cajoling by all the political parties under the sun as they form a very large vote base. How often do you come across someone writing or saying or raising concerns of the planters/owners? I was told by a reputed planter that when he wanted to explain a legitimate practical problem to a Labour Minister of the State the reply was terse ‘leave the property if you can’t run it’. Shameful….isn’t it.”

The planters are doing their bit by employing a large population of people in the State but it’s now high time the State does something for them and let them earn their daily bread as the constitution views every citizen of the country equally. “The employers are a sad, stressed lot today and only if the people in the high offices lend t their ears, we assure you that the planter community will be always at the disposal of the state,” expressed a worried planter.

While interacting with way2barak, Anil Goenka, a planter of repute said that currently, the Provident Fund (PF) department has become hyper active going after defaulters. Is this the time to do such things as attaching properties, handing them over to fly by night operators to run them and feed the labour. Their only concern is their dues but have they ever thought for a minute as to why and how this amount remained due. I am of the view that no planter or owner will ever want the PF dues to remain outstanding as the interest and penalty will eat up the properties. They have a different methodology to calculate interest etc and the penalties.

Mr. Goenka said, “The tea estate owners have been nurturing the estates for 5 to 6 decades and because of factors beyond one’s control how can you take away the child from him. It’s a criminal act on part of the PF department which should realize the current economic scenario the country is facing. I will leave you to ponder over this for now and how much damage these fly by night operators can do the property one has nurtured……”

Also Read: A Planter’s Perspective- Part III- ‘Tea Estates & the NOC Issue’

To be continued……5