The mace in the House dressed up with vegetables by Trinamul Congress leaders to protest rising prices. Picture by Amit Datta

Calcutta, March 17: The Rs 750 monthly allowance given to workers in closed tea gardens will be extended by a year after they are reopened.

The tea industry applauded Asim Dasgupta’s announcement, hoping the move would encourage investors to buy closed gardens and open them.

This is the first time some definite steps have been initiated under Section 16E of the Central Tea Act to transfer the management of the closed gardens to suitable entrepreneurs.

“A major worry for prospective buyers of closed gardens is the issue of labour costs for which a large amount of funds is required. But if the unemployment allowance continues till a year after reopening, it will ease the capital flow. Talks are on with prospective buyers for the Kathalguri tea garden,” said Basudeb Banerjee, the chairman of the Tea Board of India.

The finance minister said the state government would jointly undertake programmes with the Centre to reopen the 14 closed gardens. There are 277 tea gardens in the state.

The government has also decided to introduce programmes to generate employment for the workers of closed tea gardens and provide them free foodgrain.