Project to revive Kangra tea industry fails to take off

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, January 28

The Union Government’s multi-crore project for the revival of the Kangra tea industry is stuck in official rigmarole.

The then Union Minister for Commerce and Textile Industry Anand Sharma had announced a special package of Rs 6.5 crore for the development of the Kangra tea industry in 2012. He had said the Union Government would set up a regional centre of the Tea Board of India at Palampur which would help revive the dying tea industry.

The minister had also announced to conduct a baseline survey for the replacement of old tea bushes and revival of all abandoned tea gardens in the valley.

The Tea Board of India was assigned the job to take up the project with financial assistance from the Central Government.

It was also proposed to extend assistance to self-help groups in Kangra to market their produce through tea collection centres. Besides, stress was to be laid on the production of organic tea so the growers could better price.

The Centre had also asked the state government to make available land for tea cultivation as big industrial houses were interested in investing here. The Tea Board of India had also fixed a target to boost the tea production from 9 lakh kg per year to 20 lakh kg in 10 years.

The project has failed to take off as the authorities have failed to initiate steps to identify abandoned tea gardens in the absence of allocation of funds by the Union Government.

A senior official of the Tea Board of India at Palampur said the Union Government had not released funds for the project.