EMN
Dimapur, November 30
Confronted by grievances, a delegation of All Nagaland Small Tea Growers’ Association met the officials of North East Zonal Tea Board at Jorhat, Assam on Saturday last.
According to an executive member of the association, Kashiho Sangtam, the nine member delegation led by its president Hukiye Kibami met the Executive Director of the board, Dipankar Mukherjee and Assistant Director, Biswas and apprised officials about the grievances faced by the tea growers of Nagaland.Association said Naga tea growers lack knowledge of advanced expertise on tea growing and also that tea growers in the state have not been granted subsidies. The association also highlighted other relevant issues confronting the Nagaland tea growers.
In response, Dipankar Mukherjee assured the Nagaland tea growers to thier grievances and assist them. Stating that Nagaland is ideally viable and fertile to grow organic tea that would be of great success in both domestic and international market, he encouraged the Nagaland tea growers to set CTC (crush, tear, curl) tea processing and Orthodox factories to expand tea production in the state. He said setting up of factories would be subsidised by the board while banks would also provide loans for the purpose.
Kashiho also informed that the North East Zonal Tea Board, as per request made by the association, has approved to grant sanction for study tours, seminars, trainings and other capacity building activities for tea growers of Nagaland. In this regard, board has asked the association to submit proposal.
