Tripura: Tea Gardens to Reopen Partially with 50% Workers and Adequate Safety Measures amid Covid-19

Agartala, April 7, 2020:

Tripura State Industries and Commerce department has ordered to reopen the tea gardens with 50 percent workers and precautionary measures intact to stay safe from Covid-19.

The tea gardens owners have been asked to ensure social distancing, hygiene, keeping other safety measures in place to combat the contagious disease. The owners have also been asked to ensure that only 50 percent of the total strength of workers would be engaged in the garden work.

Tripura Health Secretary Debabsish Basu, who is also the Covid-19 spokesperson said, “Tea is an important cash crop of the state and it yields a major economic boon. It cannot afford to compromise with its quality.”

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He said that an order issued by the Industries department has relaxed the lockdown norms imposed on the tea gardens. Certain raiders are there, which have to be followed if a tea garden begins its operations, Basu told this reporter.

Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC) Chairman Santosh Saha said, “It has nothing to do with the state. Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an order to start maintenance work in all the tea gardens across the country so that proper care of the gardens could be taken ahead of the tea season. This particular period is an odd period for the tea trees. But, there are some odd-jobs, which are needed to be taken care of in time otherwise it can invite negative impact on the yearly harvest.”

Some states like West Bengal have already informed the Centre that they would not reopen their tea gardens amid Covid-19. Assam is still at its deciding stage.

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Saha said that all the higher officials including DMs, SDMs and police officials were asked to keep surveillance whether the norms were being followed or not. Provisions of punishment had been also incorporated, Saha added but failed to clarify anything as to what kind of charges could be labelled.

Tripura has no less than 54 big gardens. It has more than 2,000 small tea growers. TTDC, the state owned tea company, alone has three big gardens. The basic problem that pushed the entire tea industry into an uncertainty is that most of the gardens belong to Co-operative societies. If the gardens are not reopened, huge burden or debts on the societies could be triggered that may have a long lasting impact on the entire tea industry.

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It may be mentioned here that Tripura reported its first positive case of Covid-19 - a 35-year-old woman who is a resident of Gakulnagar in Udaipur under West Tripura district.

Currently, there are a total of 4312 active cases of the virus in India. 124 people have died of the virus and 352 have been discharged according to health ministry data.

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