GUWAHATI, Sept 25 � Industries and Commerce Minister Pradyut Bordoloi told the tea planters at an interactive meeting last evening at Golaghat that the State Government is actively considering the demand of the state�s tea associations for declaring tea as a State Drink. The Minister also expressed the hope that the Government declaration in this regard would come soon.
About a hundred tea planters from Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat and Golaghat districts took part in the interactive meet organised by the Joint Forum of the Assam Tea Planters Association (ATPA), North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) and the Bharatiya Cha Parishad (BCP) at the NETA office, said a press release here today.
The Minister laid stress on the need for producing quality orthodox tea since in the world tea market the share of orthodox tea is 45 per cent. CTC with 41 per cent and green tea with 14 per cent shares, lag behind orthodox in matters of demand.
In that case, he said, Assam produces only eight per cent of orthodox tea and 92 per cent of the tea produced by the State is CTC tea.
During the interaction, various issues connected with fertiliser, pollution fees, e-auction, land lease, Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, Assam Gas Company etc came up for detailed discussion.
The tea planters were highly impressed with the amount of knowledge displayed by the Minister on State�s tea industry as well as his sincere effort in tackling the issues concerning this industry.
The organisers submitted a number of memorandums on a host of issues concerning the State�s tea industry. ATPA chairman AR Kafera welcomed the Minister, while BCP chairman Manoj Jalan offered the vote of thanks.
