Plea on tea cut-off date - Small growers want NOC for more plantations

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Jalpaiguri,Siliguri,May 29: Small tea growers of Jalpaiguri have demanded that the new government extend the cut-off date for the granting of no-objection certificates from 2001 to at least 2008.

The Jalpaiguri District Small Tea Growers’ Association, which held its fifth annual general meeting here today, said they would soon meet Mamata Banerjee and industries minister Partha Chatterjee to discuss the cut-off set by the Left regime.

The Left Front government had fixed June 5, 2001, as the cut-off date and decided that the NOC would be granted to the small tea growers who had set up their plantations prior to that date. Planters with gardens that are of 1-3 acres are considered small growers.

“The government survey on small tea growers started only in December 2008. And though the survey report was submitted to the state government by the land department, it was never officially released,” said the joint secretary of the association, Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty.

He said till June 5, 2001, there were 1,828 small tea gardens but since then 5,176 more small plantations have come up. “Only 700 gardens have received the NOCs. We are going to ask the new government to extend the cut-off date to at least 2008 for the Siliguri subdivision and Jalpaiguri and North Dinajpur districts and then grant the NOCs. Otherwise so many of our members will be deprived of bank loans and government assistance,” he said.

Chakraborty said small growers in the district supply tealeaves to 34 bought-leaf factories and to factories of eight large gardens. “From our supplied leaves, 40 million kg of tea is produced that accounts for 35 per cent of the total tea produced in the state. We make a significant contribution to the industry and that is why we are demanding a quick response to our demands,” he claimed.

The deputy director of the Tea Board’s Siliguri office, Kalyan Kumar Bhattacharya, who was present at today’s meeting, said the NOC was a must in order to get government aids. “Most of the gardens do not have this certificate and we are not being able to extend assistance to them,” he said. 

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