Piyush Goyal stresses on quality tea production, rules out reversal on factory closures
Goyal directed the testing authorities to put the test results in the public domain to maintain transparency.
Goyal also asked the Tea Board to make a portal to keep a database of tea workers.
Source: 'X'
Guwahati, Dec 1: Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday cautioned that there will be no compromise on the quality of tea and said that while there will be no rollback of the decisions for early closure of factories and 100% auction of dust grade tea, a crackdown by the FSSAI will continue. "If we keep it open-ended (factories open throughout the year), bad quality teas will keep on coming, and prices will go down. Even if there is a 5-7 percent oversupply (of poor-quality tea), prices can go down by 25 percent," Goyal told a meeting of tea industry stakeholders here.
However, the minister said that if any producer has high-quality tea, they will be taken up on a case-by-case basis. Goyal directed the testing authorities to put the test results in the public domain to maintain transparency.
"There should be no human interface. The test results should go directly from the lab to the website. If anyone has any doubt, they can lodge a complaint and demand a retest. This will streamline the testing system," he said, adding that the test result should be "honest."
Stating that the crackdown by the FSSAI on non-compliant teas will continue, Goyal also asked the state governments to take strict action against the use of banned pesticides and chemicals. "We now have 60 percent compliant teas. But we will have to make it 100 percent," he insisted.
Goyal also asked the Tea Board to make a portal to keep a database of tea workers that would have details regarding compliance with minimum wages and other benefits to workers, etc.
By
Rituraj Borthakur