JORHAT, Sept 14 � Attending the 77th annual general meeting of the Assam Tea Planters� Association (ATPA) here today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Sarba-nanda Sonowal promised to provide required support including better power supply to the State tea gardens, where quality production has been hampered by irregular supply of electricity and natural gas to the factories even during the peak season.
In his welcome address, ATPA president Rajib Barooah highlighted several serious issues like fuel deficiency, inadequate power supply, impact of bad weather and many others which caused problems in quality production in the State tea factories for years.
�Through this industry (tea) we want to grow more. But poor power supply has already caused frustration among the industrialists. Both the Centre and the State are now ready to improve the power scenario in the coming days,� said Sonowal.
In a submission before Sonowal, the ATPA requested the Central and the State governments to bring the tea industry into the priority sector of the petroleum and other ministries concerned so that the tea producing factories are not stopped for fuel deficiency.
Besides electricity, many other serious issues like inadequate infrastructure and connectivity and the impact of draught-like weather conditions in tea production were brought to light by the ATPA, which caught Sonowal�s attention.
Stressing the need for skill development training for the unemployed youths of tea gardens, the Union Minister of State asked the tea garden owners to open centres in their estates so that the young generation of the workers can reap the benefit of the government�s training programme to improve their skills in various sectors.
Sonowal, who is also Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Skill Development Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports, said he would provide all possible support to enhance the skills of the tea garden youths so that they can avail employment opportunities in the future.
Noted agricultural scientist and Vice Chancellor of the Assam Agricultural University Dr KM Bujarbaruah said the State is endowed with great potentialities of quality tea production in the future and suggested to the planters to implement the scientific measures for sustainable production.