Kerala - Kochi   

Resolve crisis in plantation sector, says Minister

Staff Reporter

Call to take up replantation

KOCHI: Minister for Labour P.K. Gurudasan has called for a coordinative action plan to resolve the crisis in the tea plantation sector. The Tea Board should take the initiative to seek the cooperation of buyers, sellers and leaders of labour unions to work out a solution.

He was inaugurating the annual general meeting of the Association of Planters of Kerala.

The Government was of the opinion that the State's share in the tea industry should not decrease. There were several reasons for the crisis in the tea sector. The import policy of the Union Government was one of the factors.

Referring to the issue of labour, he said the Government would like to ensure better wages for labourers.

He urged the planters to take up replantation and adopt new technologies to increase output. The Union Government had promised to extend help for replantation. The State would try to get maximum help from it, he said.

The plantation industry was struggling for survival since the past eight to nine years and the situation in the State was even more severe, said V.P. Nambi, chairman, Association of Planters of Kerala. As many as 22 tea estates remained closed and had not found any way of reopening. Only big plantations were carrying out operations, he said.

The importance of the industry lay in its employment potential. It employed 5 million people, of which 60 per cent were from the financially backward sections.

R.D. Nazeem, executive director (South), Tea Board, spoke.

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