GUWAHATI, Dec 23 � The Tea Board of India at its meeting held at Tezpur today, decided to allocate an amount of Rs 41 lakh to make a comprehensive documentary film on Assam Tea. The Board will select the maker of the film through a bidding process.
Disclosing this, Tea Board Chairman MGVK Bhanu told this correspondent that the documentary will be of international standard and it will cover the development of Assam tea right from the discovery of tea by Robert Bruce with the help of Maniram Dewan, to its present status. The proposal was placed by Bidyananda Barkakoty, the representative of the Joint Forum of Assam Tea Planters' Association, North Eastern Tea Association and Bharatiya Cha Parishad.
The Board decided to make an allocation of Rs 6 crore this year to promote tea consumption in the rural areas of the country. It further decided to extend a grant of Rs 50 lakh to the Indian Tea Association (ITA) to conduct a socio-economic study of the tea garden workers within the next three months.
A decision to form an eight-member advisory committee for the Small Tea Growers� Directorate with three members from Assam, two members each from North Bengal and South India and one member from Tripura has also been adopted at the meeting. The Assam members on the committee are - Hiranya Bora, Bidyananda Barkakoty and Dinesh Sarma, Bhanu said.
The Board also decided to complete the process of issuance of biometric identity cards to the small tea growers of the country by March 31, 2014, in lieu of registration, at the cost of Rs 100 per card. Earlier, per card used to cost Rs 200. The card will be mandatory for securing the Board�s assistance.
The meeting decided further that the Board will upload all information on subsidies granted by it to its website to make the process transparent, said the Tea Board Chairman.
