SILCHAR, March 12 � The 41st AGM of Barak Valley Branch of Tea Association of India was held at the Rajib Bhawan here recently. On the occasion, the Governor of Assam, JB Patnaik was present as a chief guest.
In his speech, Patnaik said that tea is a traditional industry of our country and in Assam it occupies an important place and plays a very special role in the State�s economy. One hundred and seventy five years ago the Bruce Brothers discovered the tea leaf in Assam. It was being widely consumed as drink by local tribal people. Assam is the pioneer in the tea industry in the world and India is the pre-eminent player in the world market. Assam contributes around 50 per cent of total tea produced in India. Barak Valley and upper Assam has the maximum number of tea plantation.
Silchar is at the centre of the Barak Valley and the second largest city of Assam. It goes to the credit of Silchar that the British planters established the first polo club of India at Silchar. While we discuss the problems of the tea planters of Assam, we should not forget the small tea growers. According to a survey report published by the State Industry Department, recently Assam has 6846 small tea gardens and the small tea growers account for about 25 per cent of the State�s tea output.
Patnaik further said that the problem of the tea planters both small and big have to be seriously studied and solved, because the total turnover of tea industry is around Rs 10,000 crore and total net foreign exchange per annum in the country is around Rs 1847 crore. Besides, the tea industry is a labour intensive one and provides employment to 1.1 million workers and generates income for another 10 million people. Assam alone gives employment to about 600,000 people. Tea industry also give a lot of employment to women which constitute 50 per cent of the work force.
Vijay Dhandhania, senior vice-president, Tea Association of India at the Barak Valley Branch said that the spectre of recession is again looming large on the global economic climate. The developed countries namely Greece, Italy, Spain within the European Union and even the mighty USA are deep within a severe financial crisis. Bailout packages and austerity measures are resorted to in the first world nations which have a cascading effect on their declining import of goods and services from the developing countries like India.
India�s domestic economy is not in a good shape either, owing to the dismal performance of economy�s backbone, the industrial sector, as reflected in the declining index of industrial production. In order to tame the rising rate of inflation, Reserve Bank depended on its traditional tools and went on increasing the repo and reverse-repo rates a record number of 13 times within one year. Commercial banks followed suit and hardened their interest and pushing up the cost of borrowings to a punishing level for the trade and industry. This also is responsible for the slowdown of the Indian economy.
In his speech, the chairman of TAIBVB, PK Mishra said that infrastructure plays a very important role for the development of any region and good road, rail communications accelerate the lifeline of any industry of the said region. But the roads and bridges of the valley connecting the gardens with the towns are in a deplorable state which adversely affects procurement of inputs such as coal, packing materials, foodgrains movement, etc, and the despatch of made tea. Some parts of the National Highway remain unplayable most of the time of the year particularly in the rainy season. The valley geographically situated in so disadvantageous position needs more attention and concerned government departments are required to take urgent steps to tone up the infrastructure including rail, to develop connectivity.
