The drop in the rate of production of tea in Barak Valley of south Assam during the past couple of years was discussed at the 119th annual general meeting of the Surma Valley branch of Indian Tea Association of India (ITA) in Silchar on Saturday.

Production was reported to have gone down by 7 per cent from last year in the first two months of 2020.

The target of production of tea was 45.01million kg but it could not be fulfilled due to various reasons. The rate of tea per kg in the tea auction centre was fixed at Rs 125.76 last year and it increased by only Rs 1.53 per kg in a year.

They said in 2019, there had been record production of tea but there also had been substantial increase in the cost of production. They urged the Tea Board of India for adequate funding to the tea industry of Barak Valley with long-term interest-free soft loans to bring back its economic stability.

The 104 tea gardens in Barak Valley have more than 1.5 lakh workers.

They alleged that the lack of supply of coal, fertiliser and poor communication systems are the major reasons behind the drop in the production of tea. They said erratic power supply was also responsible.

The Tea Board of India said it would take up the matter with the Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd to enforce electric supply immediately, in the next 24 hours.

The authorities of the Barak Valley tea gardens also expressed dissatisfaction over the poor and irregular banking services in the valley.

They repeatedly asked the authorities to strengthen the banking infrastructure. They said the labourers, workers and employees of the garden face extreme difficulties in withdrawing money from the bank due to poor connectivity and infrastructure of the bank.

They said if these problems continued, then most tea gardens would be forced to shut down.They also demanded the establishment of a coal depot in Barak Valley.

The meeting was addressed by the Assam director-general of police, Bhaskar jyoti Mahanta, branch chairman of Indian Tea Association, A.S. Brar, president of the Tea Association of India, S.K. Taparia, secretary of the ITA, Arijit Raha, and Barak Valley branch secretary of ITA, Bhaskar Jyoti Chaliha, among others.