TINSUKIA: The Upper Assam Small Tea Planters Association (UASTPA) has demanded random checking and testing of green tea leaves being transported unlawfully from Arunachal Pradesh and that purportedly claimed to be procured from small tea growers of Tinsukia district and sold to the Bought Leaf Factories (BLFs) and company gardens in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh district by agents. The UASTPA also announced that the association member would launch random checking of vehicles carrying tea leaves suspected to be unlawful and other documents of the agents after 3 days as the administration and the monitoring committee are lackadaisical in their approach and commitments.
In a press meet at Tinsukia Press Club on Wednesday, the secretary of UASTPA Diganta Hazarika said that though the Government recently procured 5 green tea leaf testing mobile units to test residual pesticide content in green leaves, these units did not suffice the district’s demand besides these units are still to be operational fully. Taking advantage of these operational constraints, the middlemen collect huge quantity of Arunachal leaves and deliver them to Assam BLFs in high premium depriving the local producers, Hazarika alleged adding that due to extreme weather condition the production of green tea leaves in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh district had declined drastically. As the demand and requirement is still high, the BLFs and company gardens allegedly procure these untested Arunachalee green leaves purported shown to have procured from small tea growers of Phillobari, Bordumsa etc in Tinsukia district, said Rabakanta Baruah Dibrugarh district president of UASTPA. The working president Dambaru Gogoi demanded that the tea growers who fail to fulfil the mandated criteria of tea leaf testing, their reports should be made public. He also suggested that the tea leaf testing mobile units should be stationed at border routes through which illegal tea leaves are being transported.
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