Loan offer for tea gardens

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 8: State labour minister Malay Ghatak today said the government was ready to provide loans to tea estates to bear social costs and infuse fresh capital to rejuvenate sick plantations.

Ghatak, who held a meeting with representatives of tea planters' associations and trade union leaders at Uttarkanya here this afternoon, said the loans could be taken from the West Bengal Tea Plantation Employees' Welfare Fund. 

The minister said the state had formed a corpus of Rs 100 crore in this regard. 
"Tea estate owners are supposed to provide basic amenities like drinking water, electricity, medical assistance, housing and education to workers. But we have noticed that there are irregularities in many tea gardens where such services are not provided on a regular basis. 

Considering the state of affairs in some gardens, we told the planters today that they could apply for loans," said the minister. 
He said there were specific rules to apply for the loans and it could be made available to closed and sick estates.