Small tea growers for speedy data collection

TT, Siliguri: Small tea growers in north Bengal have expressed disappointment over the delay by the Tea Board of India in collecting and collating their details and issuing identity cards to them.

"The Tea Board had initiated the process of collating details of each small grower of the country in 2013. But unlike other tea producing states like Assam and Tamil Nadu, the process has been very slow in Bengal. Around four years have passed and till September this year, only 23.974 growers were enumerated so far in the state. The total number of small tea growers in north Bengal is around 50,000," said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers' Associations.

According to him, over 89,000 growers have been enumerated in Assam and 35,000 in Tamil Nadu.

The enumeration or enrollment of small growers, sources said, was important as each cultivator was supposed to receive an identity card bearing details of his plot.

The card would help the grower get finance from banks and other institutions. Also, the enrollment would help him avail himself of benefits under different schemes of the Tea Board.

"The delay has left them disappointed and questions are being raised as to whether they would at all find their names on the list of the Tea Board. It is surprising that when the Centre is focussing so much on small tea sector that has contributed around 44 per cent of the total tea production last year, there is sluggishness on the part of a section of officials of the Tea Board," said a senior tea grower in Siliguri.

A Tea Board official said the process was still on.

"It is an elaborate task and that is why there is delay. We will include each small grower of the country in the list as we need to have a comprehensive data bank. We understand the growers' impatience and want to assure them that none will be left out," he said.