The Tripura Government is sincere and responsible for improving the socio-economic status of Tea garden workers of the state. At the same time, the state government is making efforts to modernize the tea industry, said Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha after inaugurating the gas-based tea processing project at Durgabari Tea Garden.

Dr Saha said, “The problems that were experienced when tea processing was Coal-based will be lessened in gas-based tea processing”.

Talking about the tea industry in the State, the Chief Minister said, several small tea gardens were created through REGA scheme – tea plantations in around 1200 Acre land were set up in this scheme.

In this connection he also said, Tripura has some 58 tea gardens – 42 of which are individually owned, another 13 are run by cooperative societies and three are run by the Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC). Besides, there are nearly 3,000 small tea growers in the border state.

“At present Tripura is in the 5th position in Tea production in the State”, Dr Saha said.

The Chief Minister after inaugurating the state’s first gas-based tea processing centres at Durgabari tea estate in West Tripura Saha said, “Tripura has a century-old history of growing tea. We are planning to set up a tea auction centre in states like Assam and West Bengal.

He also said his government is thinking about exporting tea to neighbouring Bangladesh.

He also assured that the government is trying to increase the scope of employment generation in the tea production sector.

He appreciated the role of the present managing body of Tripura Tea Development Corporation Limited (TTDC) for achieving significant success in the field as compared to the previous managing body.

 Chairman of TTDC Santosh Saha, Local MLA Krishnadhan Das, Sila Das, Chairperson, Bamutia Panchayat Samiti, Gopal Chakraborty, Advisor of Durgabari Tea Workers Co-Cooperative Society Ltd and others were present at the inaugural programme.

Dr Saha also inaugurated another gas-based Tea processing unit of Durgabari Tea Labour Cooperative Samiti Limited.