Siliguri, Feb. 9: The 12-member committee on tea, headed by commerce and industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen, has outlined a set of recommendations aimed at bailing out the local tea industry.

The government has said it would “consider” these recommendations before formally announcing an action plan.

The recommendations, however, are not binding on the government.

The committee was formed in August through a special notification of the state government.

In its 26-page report, the tea revival committee has listed its recommendations and categorised them under various heads.

The recommendations, experts feel, could provide the much-needed shot in the arm to an industry reeling under spiralling input costs and low market prices.

The committee has suggested that the government should consider “market intervention” options in order to ensure that good quality tea is purchased at the auction centres and distributed to the people through the public distribution system.

Second, the report asks the government to make serious efforts to “regularise” small growers and bought leaf factories (BLF) in north Bengal. Unless these units are regularised, they cannot register themselves with the Tea Board of India. Unregistered units are responsible for haphazard production patterns.

A series of recommendations has also been made on issues affecting the well-being of garden workers.

To begin with, the report states that factory workers employed by the BLFs be brought under the pan-industry wage agreement pattern. It also calls for action to be initiated under provisions of the CrPC against errant promoters who have either fled the gardens or stopped supplying essential services, like medical facilities and potable water, to the labourers.

The panel has also said the government should not come in the way of workers who want to form cooperatives to revive abandoned gardens, if they were willing to shoulder past liabilities.