Darjeeling, April 10: Cin chona labourers and staff might not be helping the cause of the plantations, but the attitude of the Bengal government, too, leaves a lot to be desired.

The research wing of the cinchona plantations has been ?defunct? for more than a decade. The government has stopped the inflow of research funds and has instead transferred cinchona research workers to other public sector undertakings, a move that has raised questions on the government?s sincerity to make the plantations viable.

Cinchona plantations ? the largest public sector undertaking in the hills ? provides sustenance to about 40,000 people.

?The running cost of the research wing in the plantations is about Rs 5 to Rs 7 lakh annually (leaving aside the research workers? salary). Those funds have not been released and what is more alarming is that even research workers who have been posted out of the plantations draw their salary from the cinchona plantation budget?, said a source.

Only research in nurseries ? and that too occasionally, are being carried out ? but laboratory work has come to a standstill. The only botanist from the Mungpoo unit ? located around 40 km from Darjeeling ? has been transferred and the post of analytical chemist has been lying vacant. The other unit at Gairibas, about 130 km from Kalimpong, is also defunct.

The Mungpoo quinine factory, set up by the British, has not been upgraded all these years. For the past few years, the Diogenin factory at Gairibas too has stopped functioning as the products are not getting sold.

According to the source, this is largely due to the high production cost. ?The production cost for a kg of quinine is Rs 12,000. The market value, however, is about Rs 3,000. The overhead expenses (social responsibility towards workers) are just too high?, the source said.

Quinine, which is a derivative of the cinchona barks, is used as a constituent in a number of medicines and more importantly in the treatment of malaria. The cinchona plantations in the hills can produce about 20 tonnes annually, given the right conditions.

The produce from India ? the cinchona plantations here are the only of their kind in the country ? has not been able to compete with the rest of the world over production cost. ?There are no such overhead expenses in other countries. Moreover their quality (in terms of quinine content) is better?, the source added.

Cinchona barks grown in the region have a quinine content of only about 3.5 per cent. However, the quinine content, especially in plantations of South America, can be as high as 7.5 per cent. There is also considerable loss during isolation of quinine here, unlike in other countries.

The efficiency of the marketing unit based in Calcutta is also questionable. ?There is a notion that there is no demand for quinine in India. However it must be noted that the country imports about 8 to10 tonnes of quinine annually?, said the source.

Taking these factors into account, research in cinchona production and upgrade of the factories are of vital importance. ?If the government cannot make the research unit operational, it can at least buy research material from private firms engaged in such work. This too has never been done,? the source said.

(Concluded)