Jorhat, July 19: The chairman of the government-owned Assam Tea Corporation Limited (ATCL) has said pumping in money to revive the company was a "waste" as mismanagement over the years has pushed it to the brink of closure.
The Assam government released Rs 9 crore last week to carry out development work in the company-owned gardens. Another Rs 7 crore was released a couple of years back. The ATCL owns 15 gardens spread over the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys.
ATCL chairman Rameswar Dhanowar told The Telegraph yesterday that pumping in funds was not the solution to revive the company with "inexperienced persons" at the helm of affairs. "Only an experienced person with vast knowledge about tea could help revive the company," he said.
Dhanowar, an MLA from Digboi constituency in Tinsukia district, said although he was appointed the chairman in 2013, he did not have the administrative and financial powers. "It is the managing director who runs the show and the government has not appointed the right person," he said.
R.T. Jindal, an IAS officer, was appointed managing director of the company last year after Harish Sonowal tendered his resignation.
Sources said the government has issued a notification to appoint an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer to head the company.
Dhanowar said such appointments would be of no help to the company as they lacked knowledge about the industry. "An IAS officer or an IFS officer is not the solution. Unless we appoint a person with vast knowledge in tea as managing director of the company, there is no point in investing funds for reviving the ATCL gardens," he said.
Established in 1972, the ATCL is a wholly owned Assam government public sector undertaking.
The company has recently launched a massive re-plantation drive and set a target of completing the exercise on 500 hectares by April next year.
The re-plantation drive is part of the revival package of the company as experts feel that 80 per cent of the tea bushes in the ATCL gardens are over 80 years old and have lost their productivity.
Dhanowar said the company has failed to achieve the production target this year and it was only because of the good show by a few gardens like Cinnamara, Longai, Naginijan and Isabheel that the company is surviving.
"Soon after I was appointed chairman, I sought the status report on all 15 gardens. Though the managers of the gardens were interested in giving the reports, the management of ATCL did not come forward to do the same. Thus, I was kept in the dark about the status. I constituted a fact-finding committee and the members, including me, visited all the gardens and found there was complete mismanagement and lack of professionalism in running of the estates," Dhanowar said.
He said it had been found that there was a loss of 1,55,42,097kg in harvesting green leaves in the ATCL gardens between 2005 and 2013. Such production loss has resulted in the loss of revenue of Rs 3,57,46,823.
ATCL sources said turnover of the company was Rs 14 crore in 2005, increased to Rs 36 crore in 2009 and reached Rs 48 crore in 2012. However, it is not enough, going by the company's liabilities and the huge workforce of 15,000 it has to take care of.
