Small tea growers to get land pattas at DC office level: Sarbananda Sonowal

JORHAT: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that the small tea growers of the State would henceforth be able to collect their land pattas from the office of the Deputy Commissioners of their respective districts. The Revenue Department will issue a notification to this effect very soon.

Announcing this at a function organized to inaugurate a building for small tea growers' training and research centre at Tocklai Tea Research Institute in Jorhat on Thursday, Chief Minister Sonowal said that the decision to allot land pattas to small tea growers locally had been taken to dispose of the demands expeditiously to the benefit of the recipients. He, at the same time, handed over land pattas to six small tea growers symbolically to kick-start the programme of allotting land pattas to small tea growers at the level of DC office.

Under 'Mission Assam QualiTea' programme, the building that Chief Minister Sonowal inaugurated has been built at an expenditure of Rs. 5.83 crore of the total financial outlay of Rs. 17 crore earmarked for small tea growers' training and research centre. The ground floor of the building has four laboratory rooms and the first floor has four class rooms. The centre has facilities like tea testing and diversification, mechanization and bio-control study, besides training-cum-demonstration for the tea growers.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Sonowal, while terming the tea industry as a symbol of pride of Assam, said that in the global market Assam had made its identity through tea. He, however, said that while maintaining its impressive streak for the last 200 years, Assam tea of late had faced several challenges. In the highly competitive market in order to stay relevant, the quality of Assam tea will have to be improved substantially. He also hoped that the small tea growers training and research centre would help to lend quality development of Assam tea.

Acknowledging the role of Tocklai Tea Research Institute in qualitative improvement of Assam Tea and giving it a new name and fame, Sonowal said that in the backdrop of new experimental innovations and their cascading effect on tea, the research institute once again had to re-establish its prowess to capture the world market. He also said that wielded by the experience of 109 years, Tocklai Tea Research Institute would have to shoulder the responsibility to make Assam Tea a global name once again. Sonowal also said the institute had to take the responsibility to promote Assam Tea as a beverage with its inherent medicinal quality.

He also said that for the development of tea industry, both big tea growers and small tea growers would have to work in tandem. Stating that though questions had been raised on the qualitative production of the small tea growers, Sonowal called upon the two lakh small tea growers to take quality tea production as their mission and work towards that end. He also said that the small tea growers training and research centre would work to lend capacity building of the small tea growers.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of transforming Assam and other north-eastern States into an organic hub, Sonowal asked the tea growers in the State to lend their hand in reaching this target. He also said that close on the heels of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal, the State Government would do everything possible for the production of organic tea, its research and marketing. Speaking on the economic stimulus announced by the Prime Minister for MSME to the tune of Rs 3 lakh crore, Sonowal informed that under this, 98,000 MSME enterprises earned loan to the tune of Rs. 1,900 crore in the State.

While speaking on the occasion, State Industry and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said that as per the direction of the Chief Minister, a research centre of the organic tea would be set up in Tocklai Tea Research Centre.

Presided over by the Director of Tocklai Tea Research Association, Anup Kumar Barooah, Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly, Hitendra Nath Goswami, State Industry and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Rameswar Teli, and Minister of State for Revenue and Disaster Management, Jogen Mohan also spoke on the occasion.