ESTATES' CLOSURE, SMALL GROWERS' PROFITABILITY HIGHLIGHTED IN CAMPAIGN .... TMC, BJP eye tea sector in Jalpaiguri for win

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, Siliguri: A contrast in the tea sector in terms of employment and profitability has emerged as the focal point of the campaign in the Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha seat where Trinamul and the BJP are locked in a tight fight.

Trinamul has fielded Bijoy Chandra Burman, while the BJP's nominee is Jayanta Roy. The common factor in all seven Assembly segments under the Jalpaiguri Parliament constituency is tea plantations. What keeps the Jalpaiguri district apart from Alipurduar is the huge presence of small tea growers. In the Jalpaiguri district, there are over 30,000 small growers who contribute close to half of the tea production in the district.

But in Alipurduar, the number of small tea growers is less.

In the western Dooars, which comes under Jalpaiguri seat, most of the tea estates are suffering from funds constraints, lower realisation of prices and rise in cost of production.

"In the past 10 years, hardly any employment was generated in the 60-odd tea estates in the Jalpaiguri district. A number of tea estates Bijoy Chandra Burman, Jayanta Roy are close and some others are sick. As a result, hundreds of workers are jobless and a section of them have even migrated to other states," said a tea planter.

The situation is, however, completely different in the small tea sector. The small growers have provided employment to around 35,000 people at their plantations.

The rise of the small sector has made the Tea Board of India that functions under the Union commerce min- istry extend assistance of several kinds, right from subsidies to training.

On the other hand, the Mamata Banerjee government has extended several social welfare schemes among workers of tea estates.

"The central government did nothing for the tea industry. It has also not helped the tea workers in any manner. It is our government that facilitated reopening the closed gardens and provided assistance under social welfare schemes to them," said Burman, the Trinamul candidate.

The BJP, on the other hand, is trying to gain support from the small growers.

"The tea board has stood by the growers to provide them all help. Subsidies are provided for setting up factories, for buying vehicles and machineries. Further, small tea growers have been provided training so that they come up with better quality of teas but the state so far, has not even recognized most of these growers. They have demanded conversion of their land status long time back, but nothing has been done," said Bapi Goswami, a district BJP leader.

Additional reporting by our Jalpaiguri correspondent.