Small tea growers of Assam demand ban on green tea leaves from Arunachal Pradesh

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TINSUKIA: The All Assam Small Tea Growers’ Association (AASTGA), Tinsukia District Committee, has demanded banning illegal and smuggled tea leaves from some districts of Arunachal Pradesh into bought leaf factories in the Tinsukia district in the interest of the survival of small tea growers. As tea is considered an agricultural crop, the AASTGA also demanded the inclusion of tea under the Minimum Support Price (MSP).

In a press meet at Tinsukia Press Club on Wednesday, the secretary of the steering committee, Hiren Moran, said that 42 percent of green leaves fed into bought leaf factories in the Tinsukia district, numbering around 94, are pilfered from three districts of Arunachal Pradesh, namely Lower Dibang, Lohit, and Changlang, in 840 vehicles daily after crossing the inter-state check gate and intriguingly using the biometric cards of Assam tea growers. Moran said that the bought-leaf factories allegedly sell the made tea from Assam by the back door at a high premium without channelling it through Tea Auction, while the degraded quality of tea produced from Arunachal fetches a poor price. As a consequence, the bought-leaf factory owners decline to pay the desired price for green leaves from small tea growers in Tinsukia, said Moran.

There are 56,000 tea growers in the Tinsukia district who support 1,180,000 family members through tea cultivation on 3,82,000 bighas of land. The production price of raw tea leaves in the Tinsukia district is Rs. 24.35 per kg. In contrast, the price of raw tea leaves has increased from Rs 13 to Rs 16 per kg this year.

The AASTGA alleged that almost all bought-leaf factory owners are outsiders thriving on the business at the expense of local tea growers. Even the government and other statutory bodies pay no heed to the plight of the small tea growers, to the extent that five MLAs in Tinsukia district are totally concerned with company gardens, even though 40 percent of green leaves are supplied by the small tea growers, said Moran. The Government of Assam should enact a law to stop the entry of raw tea leaves from Arunachal Pradesh in the interest of the survival of the tea growers of Tinsukia district, said Md. Amin, president of the AASTGA Tinsukia district committee. In this regard, the AASTGA submitted a representation to the Chief Minister of Assam.

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