Restructuring of closed tea gardens

The Union commerce and industries ministry has mooted a plan to financially restructure closed tea gardens in a bid to get them reopened.

Jairam Ramesh, the Union minister of state for commerce and industries, told The Telegraph today that “a plan has been devised to enable the owners of closed gardens to get rid of a substantial portion of their liabilities”.

Under the scheme, some of the loans and advances made to these gardens would be waived, while the Centre and financial institutions would bear a part of the accumulated burden.

Of the 33 tea estates that have been put on the priority list, 14 are in Bengal, 17 in Kerala and two in Assam.

“Once the owners reopen their units, they can seek soft loans to finance their units. This assistance is apart from the Special Purpose Tea Fund, for which they are eligible to apply only after they clear their liabilities,” the minister said. The special purpose fund can be used for replantation and rejuvenation.

According to statistics available with the tea board, the total dues of 14 gardens in north Bengal (including the recently-opened Surendranagar) are Rs 129.49 crore. Of this, bank dues are Rs 114.03 crore, provident fund dues Rs 11.65 crore and tea board dues Rs 3.80 crore.

The minister said the next priority would be how to refurbish sick gardens, “but not right now”.

Ramesh travelled 60 km by road from Bagdogra Airport to Chalsa this afternoon, before visiting Samsing tea estate. “I will visit five closed estates during my three-day visit and I am optimistic of reopening at least two,” he said.

The five are Samsing, Bharnobari, Redbank, Chamurchi and Raipur. “We are confident of reopening Bharnobari and Redbank tomorrow, while at Chamurchi, talks will be held to form a cooperative to run the garden. Nothing can be said about Raipur now,” Ramesh said.

At Samsing, a Citu-dominated garden, more than 300 residents welcomed Ramesh with a lal salaam. “The owner met me three days ago and assured me that once the financial package is declared, he would open the garden within 24 hours,” the minister said over phone from Chalsa.

Ramesh asserted that if the Samsing owner did not respond within a month, the Centre would acquire the garden under Section 16 (D) of the Indian Tea Act.

Source: The Telegraph

Ramesh dissatisfied with CPM led Bengal Government

Jairam Ramesh, The Union minister of state for commerce and industry, expresses feeling of dissatisfaction with the West Bengal government's action to reopen closed tea gardens in comparison to Kerala's drive for the same.

“Though we have CPM governments in both the states, it is surprising that only one of the 14 closed gardens of Bengal has reopened in the past one month, whereas in Kerala, five of the 17 closed gardens have started functioning within the same time span,” Ramesh told The Telegraph over phone from Delhi today.

“On July 17, eight more gardens are likely to reopen in Kerala,” he added.

Ramesh said the delay in Bengal was at variance with the progressive attitude adopted by the government here. “Representatives of the government speak so much of industrialisation and are even showing progress in some cases. But the unprecedented delay in persuading owners or prospective buyers to reopen the gardens has left us wondering about the contradiction,” he said.

The minister will be in Jalpaiguri on June 29 aiming to reopen three closed estates — Samsing, Bamandanga-Tondu and Redbank (see chart).

“We had decided at a meeting in Calcutta last month that we would be in Jalpaiguri to reopen the gardens. Before that, I would be in Calcutta on June 14-15 to review the situation with tea board officials,” Ramesh said. “It seems that entrepreneurs in Bengal could not be motivated like their colleagues in Kerala.”

This is the second time that Ramesh has decided to come down from Delhi to reopen closed gardens in the Dooars. On his first visit, on May 17, he was asked by the chief secretary of the state to shelve his plan of accompanying the owner of the closed Surendranagar Tea Estate to the garden for its reopening in the face of a possible law and order threat.

The owner, Rabin Paul, however, succeeded in reopening the garden on the scheduled date. Among the 14 gardens in Bengal that have been closed since 2002, Surendranagar is the only one that is currently functioning.

The minister’s plans for the June 29 visit has prompted a flurry of activities at the tea board office in Calcutta.

“We have already held a number of meetings and will meet bankers, owners and other stakeholders of some of the closed gardens tomorrow,” Basudeb Banerjee, the chairman of the tea board, said over phone from Calcutta.

Ramesh added that Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee would accompany him for the formal launch of the Special Purpose Tea Fund in north Bengal. The programme is likely to be held at the auction centre in Jalpaiguri on June 29.

Banerjee said initially the special purpose fund would be disbursed among “eligible planters from Assam and north Bengal” before the focus shifts to estate owners in south India.

“It would be launched in Guwahati on June 25 and in Jalpaiguri on June 29. So far, we have received 256 applications from across the country,” he added.

At the programme in Jalpaiguri, agreements would be signed between some of the planters from north Bengal who have applied for the special funds and the tea board, Banerjee said.

While Ramesh sounded confident about his plan of reopening the three closed gardens during his visit to Jalpaiguri, Paul, who also owns Redbank tea estate, remained non-committal.

“We have received a letter from the minister asking us to reopen Redbank, but we are yet to decide on the issue as there are some pending problems at the garden,” Paul said from Calcutta.

Source: The Telegraph