The Hindu : Business : Tea gardens: Jairam writes to Buddhadeb

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Thursday, Mar 22, 2007
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Tea gardens: Jairam writes to Buddhadeb

Indrani Dutta

`Kannan Devan model is worth trying out'

KOLKATA: Keen to help revive some of the 17 closed tea gardens in West Bengal, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jairam Ramesh has written to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, saying that Tata Tea's venture in Kerala, now being run by workers and professional managers, was working well and was worth trying out on a larger scale.

The Minister, who was here on Sunday, said he wrote to Mr. Bhattacharjee, saying that the revival of these gardens will have to be a joint exercise. The revival cannot be done unilaterally either by the State or by the Central Government.

Mr. Ramesh is clearly impressed with the Kanan Devan Hill Plantation's (KDHP) experience in reviving some nine tea gardens in Kerala. The KDHP, a loss-making venture, was turned around through the joint effort of 13,000 workers. They own 30 per cent of the company, which is now a private limited company.

Mr. Ramesh felt that the KDHP had combined workers' participation with professional management in a very effective manner. Tata Tea divested its majority shareholding in these gardens and now holds an 18.8 per cent share, according to company MD Percy Siganporia.

KDHP sources said the revival model could be replicated in other closed gardens. The essential component was to de-risk the tea business by going in for non-tea crops and by taking initiatives for tea-tourism.

However, Mr. Ramesh said that changing the present ownership of the closed tea gardens in West Bengal or Kerala "was crucial, as the existing managements had bled the gardens white." The Tea Act 1953 enables a management-takeover by the Tea Board after which the control could be handed over to a new management.

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