Agartala, July 17: The Tripura government has firmly opposed the Tea Board’s recent initiatives to shift its Northeast zonal office from Guwahati to Jorhat, in Upper Assam, and opening a new directorate for small tea growers at Dibrugarh.

In fact, minister of state for industry Jiten Chowdhury has sought the intervention of Union commerce minister Anand Sharma to abort the move. In a recent letter to Sharma, Chowdhury pointed out the problems that other tea growing zones of the Northeast would face because of the move.

“What I have demanded in my letter to the Union minister for commerce is that the Tea Board’s zonal headquarters in the Northeast be retained in Guwahati and consultations be held among all tea-growing states regarding the location of the directorate for small tea growers,” Jiten said. He also accused the Tea Board of taking decisions unilaterally without consulting other tea-growing states.

Compared to Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Jorhat are not as well connected to other parts of the region. So, shifting the Tea Board’s regional headquarters to Jorhat and locating the directorate for small tea growers in Jorhat and Dibrugarh would create a lot of problems for Tripura and other tea-producing areas of the region, Chowdhury said.

He said the tea sector in Tripura, which comprises 57 functional tea gardens and over 4,000 small tea growers, was already reeling under various problems. And the Tea Board’s decisions would only worsen the situation by putting further stress on the tea industry in Tripura.

“It seems that the Tea Board has taken this decision keeping in view the interests of the tea industry in Assam, no objection to Assam’s interests being protected but why should we suffer? The decision has been taken keeping all other tea-producing states in the dark,” said Chowdhury.

Citing Tripura’s contribution to the tea sector, he said the cumulative production of tea in Tripura in 2011 had reached 4.7 million kg. The minister was especially critical of the decision to set up a separate directorate for small tea growers at Dibrugarh, asserting that such a directorate should be located keeping in view the overall interest of all small tea growers in the country.

“What the Tea Board should bear in mind is that besides the Northeast, states in south India, West Bengal and even Himachal Pradesh have a lot of small tea growers and the board should ensure that their interests are equally protected when a separate directorate is launched. The location of the directorate in Dibrugarh will create more problems for small tea growers in the country than it will solve,” said Chowdhury.

“We should have the new directorate in a place, which is well connected with all tea-growing states by rail, road and air. The town of Dibrugarh in Assam cannot provide such connectivity and the decision should be revised immediately in the interest of small tea growers across the country,” Chowdhury told Anand Sharma in his letter.