Rubber plantation in Tripura

Agartala, Nov. 20: The recently passed 10th amendment to the Tripura Land Reforms and Land Revenue Act-1960 by the state government banning rubber cultivation in the 52 functional tea gardens alongside tea and declaring that surplus government land will be allotted to landless people has sparked a major crisis for the state’s ailing tea industries.

In the monsoon session of the Assembly, the state government amended sub-section 1 of Section 178 of the TLRLR Act and banned cultivation of “rubber” and “ancillary” crops on the surplus land of the tea gardens.

“Before the amendment, tea growers were authorised by law to go for cultivation of coffee, rubber and ancillary agricultural crops side by side with tea but the amendment has dropped the words ‘rubber’ and ‘ancillaries’, putting the industry in jeopardy,” said P.K. Sarkar, secretary of the Tea Association of India.

Significantly, the “statement of objects and reasons” of the amendment clearly states that the purpose is “to introduce land reforms to remove inequalities in land holdings, particularly in rural areas”.

Sarkar said even before the passing of the amendment, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Mohanpur, Dhiraj Debbarma, had issued on August 13 formal letters to the managements of four tea gardens — Adarini, Binodini, Kalkalia and Mekhlibandh — seeking an explanation that hundreds of acres of surplus lands in their gardens where rubber cultivations have been launched had been vested in the government and would be allotted to landless poor people.

Subsequently, similar letters were issued by district magistrate, West Tripura, asking the managements to vacate lands.

“Interestingly, acting upon the SDM’s order tehshildars had visited the four villages to set up pillars for demarcation of the land. The managements protested that they had received no formal letter and the tehshildars left the work incomplete,” Sarkar said.

He pointed out that in Tripura, workers of 16 tea gardens, including government co-operative-run Ludhua, Lilagarh in South Tripura, Kamalasagar and Durgabari in West Tripura and eight other gardens in Unakoti and North Tripura districts were engaged in rubber cultivation to supplement their falling income for sale of tea in auctions and to retain the viability of the gardens but the four gardens in Sadar and Mohanpur subdivisions have been targeted by the government.

“In two gardens — Mekhlibandh and Simnacherra — vast tracts of land have been encroached upon by indigenous people who do grow rubber illegally but the SDM and DM have held the garden managements responsible for this. Apart from this, the amendment act has also altered the definition of land. Earlier, one hectare of land was to be taken as three hectares in the case of tilla (barren elevated land) land but the amendment makes it clear that one hectare means just one hectare regardless of the status and nature of land. This will put the garden owners in trouble because it seems the entire land structure will be redefined,” said T.C. Saha, a planter and co-owner of Binodini tea estate in Mohanpur.

He, however, admitted that out of altogether 14,000 hectares of land allotted for tea cultivation in gardens, only 4.5 hectares were covered by tea cultivation.

“But we are not responsible for this; the tea board has barred us from going for expansion of cultivation to retain competitiveness. We get no help or incentive from the state government for fully utilising the entire land; loans and advances are also extremely difficult to come by. So we cannot utilise the full land, but that cannot mean the state government will take away the entire tracts of land for redistribution among the landless,” Saha said.

He added that the state government’s policy was “totally anti-industry”.

Saha, however, said that planters doing rubber cultivation got a temporary respite by an order of the high court on October 26 when the acquisition process of land in the four targeted gardens was stayed by Justice U.B. Saha.

“The matter will come up again and what the division bench will order can not be anticipated, we have to wait and watch,” Saha said.

Describing the plight of the tea industry in Tripura as “critical” Saha and TAI secretary P.K. Sarkar said currently 52 functional tea gardens in Tripura produce 9.5 million of made tea annually whose monetary value is Rs 90 crore.

“What may sound peculiar is that our production cost is Rs 95 a kg but we get prices ranging between Rs 98-100 at the auctions. How is the industry to survive without going for cultivation of cash crops like rubber?” asked Saha.

He also pointed out that a national-level commission constituted by the Union ministry of commerce under the stewardship of former commerce secretary S.N Menon had recommended in 2010 that increasingly unviable tea gardens in Cachar and Tripura be allowed to cultivate rubber along with tea in the gardens for survival. “But the state government is impervious to all recommendations or observations. Death knell of tea industry has already been sounded in Tripura,” Saha said.