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Dikom Tea Estate goes beyond the call of duty

By Staff Correspondent - 15 Sep 2010 12:00 AM GMT

DIBRUGARH, Oct 15 - A tea estate near here has set a precedent by going beyond the call of duty to train up its workers and their educated dependents to invest their hard-earned money in productive ventures. The tea estate referred to is Rossell Tea owned by Dikom Tea Estate, located some 20 km from here. The garden today introduced livestock farming to its workers and their dependents so that their hard-earned bonus money did not go waste in revelry alone.

It is pertinent to mention that workers this time have received near about Rs 12,000 as a bonus. The plantation workers are given a bonus by their respective garden managements before Durga Puja every year. According to Superintending Manager Samar Jyoti Chaliha, �This kind of training would really help them invest their hard-earned money in businesses that can generate extra income and also make them self-dependent,� he said.

Several educated boys and girls from the garden and the periphery villages attended the training along with the workers. The participants were introduced to scientific rearing of poultry, duck, goats and other livestock farming activities, besides cultivation of agricultural crops.

The training titled �Agri- Entrepreneurship� was organised by the management of the garden in collaboration with the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) under the District Agricultural Department, Dibrugarh.

The training was conducted by Dr Ananta Kalita, Tribeni Kalita, Dipika Gogoi, Momi Baruah and Churanta Bijoy Sonowal.

Suresh Pator, secretary, ACMS, Dikom Unit, who also attended the training, was highly impressed and expressed his gratitude to the management of Dikom TE for organising such unexpected training. He also thanked the trainers from the District Agricultural Department for sharing their knowledge in agriculture and livestock.

This is not the only venture by the garden to be lauded for. In the past too, the garden management has walked the extra mile by initiating conservation measures for the protection of wildlife and the environment.

It also regularly holds capacity building programmes for adolescent girls and women. Recently, the garden management launched school classes in open field and community halls for children to compensate for the loss of education due to the pandemic.

The garden with a population of approximately 8,500 has around 2,900 employees on the payroll.