Tea Garden Youths To Get Benefits Of Government Schemes

HT Correspondent
DIBRUGARH, Feb 24: Dibrugarh district becomes the first district in Assam to find solution for the decade long problems of land related documents of tea and ex-tea garden youths to avail benefits under schemes like PMEGP and PMFME.

The one crore population of the tea garden and ex-tea garden community of Assam has been relentlessly trying to join the mainstream Assam so far as economic upliftment of a community is concerned by availing benefits under various welfare schemes declared by the state and central government from time to time.

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) and Prime Minister’s Formalisation Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) are two such flagship schemes of government of India mainly focusing on self-employment generation through setting up of ventures like micro industrial enterprises, business ventures and livestock farming of piggery poultry, etc.

Nevertheless, the progress has not been that rapid and accentuated one. One reason for this lacklustre progress is lack of land documents for these youths as most of them are residing on Tea Plantation (TP) land under absolute control of the tea companies. Lack of proper land documents prevents the financing banks from processing the loan applications submitted by these youths.

This dismal picture of sluggish progress was brought to the notice of the general manager, District Industries and Commerce Centre, Dibrugarh, Morgan Meston by Dhiraj Gowala, president, All Assam Tea Tribes Students Association (ATTSA), who after having consultation with the deputy commissioner of Dibrugarh, Biswajit Pegu decided to convene a meeting with all the stakeholders to find a solution for good for this long pending issue.

Accordingly, a meeting chaired by the deputy commissioner, Dibrugarh on December 12, 2022 was held in the conference hall of the deputy commissioner office, Dibrugarh in presence of Dhiraj Gowala, president, ATTSA; Ranjan Paul, secretary of Tea Association of India; representative of Assam Branch of Indian Tea Association (ABITA), representative of Assam Chah Karmachari Parishad (ACMS); Mayank Agarwal, lead district manager (LDM) and bank managers of Dibrugarh district.
For a broad-based discussion on the topic, a follow up meeting was held with more stakeholders like Doli Sharma Kalita, secretary, Bharatiya Chah Parishad (BCP); Manisha Sharma, secretary, North East Tea Association (NETA); representative of Assam Chah Karmachari Parishad (ACMS); Mrinal Gogoi, general manager, Satya Narayan Tea Company, Dibrugarh on February 14, 2023.

After a thorough deliberation on the issue, the committee unanimously resolved that the tea garden management will issue an NOC/license to the applicants model format of which shall be prepared by District Industries and Commerce Centre, Dibrugarh after collating inputs from all the stakeholders.

“This NOC/license issued for a specific period with concomitant minimum rental per annum will be accepted by the financing banks as proof of land documents for processing PMEGP and PMFME applications of the tea and ex-tea garden youths,” stated a press release.