- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, September 03, 2022 : Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC) with support from Tea Board of India (TBI) on Saturday morning organized a ‘Run for Tea’ to promote the large-scale tea production throughout the state.
Addressing the flagging off ceremony to promote tea production of Tripura, Education minister Ratan Lal Nath said “The Tea Development Corporation under the chairmanship of Santosh Saha and his team has been making untiring efforts for the betterment of tea workers, increasing the production quantity, branding of it and marketing across the country, which in turn escalating the economy of the state.”
“The journey of tea production in Tripura started in 1916. The present state government has taken initiatives to take the journey forward of tea production and to promote state-produced tea, ‘Run for Tea’ has been organized. Tripura bagged the sixth position in tea production across the country. The state government has been taking one after another decision to promote tea produced from this land”, he added.
Nath said, “In Tripura, there had never been any logo for tea, our government introduced it. We also introduced brands as ‘Tripureswari Tea’ and ‘Tripureswari Premium Tea’. The present Tea Development Corporation had initiated steps to set up ‘Auction Centre’. At present, this centre is opened at Guwahati and Agartala, and the rate of tea has increased by several times. Not only this, the quantity and quality of tea production in this state also increased.”
“There are 54 tea gardens across Tripura comprising three gardens owned by TTDC. Despite this, the Corporation initiated steps to promote our locally produced tea. Over 10,000 tea garden workers are there but they never had their own land earlier. But this present government has given them their right to land of ‘2 Gondas’ to each tea worker under Mukhyamanti Cha Sramik Kalyan Prakalpa. Their wages have been hiked to Rs 176 from Rs 105 per day. After the rubber industry, tea is the second most organized industry in this state”, he also added.
Conveying thanks to the Tripura Tea Development Corporation’s chairman Santosh Saha, officials and karyakartas, ICA minister Sushanta Chowdhury said “With the wonderful idea of ‘Run For Tea’, Tripura Tea Development Corporation organized this marathon for promoting the state’s tea in the national and international markets. The way TTDC has been working with constant support from Tea Board of India, and untiring efforts made by introducing new logo and branding of the packet will immensely help in achieving higher altitude of success. In the coming days, Tripura’s tea will earn good fame in the markets across the globe.”
TTDC chairman Saha, AMC Mayor Dipak Majumder, NE Tea Board official, Industries and Commerce department’s Special Secretary Abhishek Chandra and officials of various departments participated in this marathon ‘Run For Tea’ in Agartala city.
Notably, there are 22 Tea processing factories and among them, two are managed by TTDC, five are managed by cooperative societies and 15 are managed privately. Over 14,000 labourers are engaged with tea gardens and processing factories. Apart from these, 2800 small-scale growers are there and they produce 8 million kilograms of green tea.
