A fresh relief came for the tea industry of Bengal on Monday as the state government announced 50 per cent of the workforce could be engaged in plucking and other operations in gardens.

“It is good that the state government has finally come with the much desired directive. We welcome it as it would immensely help the industry that suffered losses at the beginning of the season, that is, during the first flush,” said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Associations.

Following several representations from the industry, Rajiva Sinha, chief secretary, issued a circular in this regard on Monday.

“… operations including plucking in tea gardens allowed with deployment of up to 50 % of total regular workforce at a time,” said the circular.

As the lockdown was announced in March, activities in the tea industry came to a halt across the state — both in tea gardens and small plantations. Pause button was pressed on all operations in the tea industry from March 24.

On April 7, the state offered a partial relaxation and allowed engagement of 15 per cent workers only for skiffing of tea bushes. On April 13, it was announced that 25 per cent workers could be engaged.

As the Centre had issued a directive, allowing engagement of 50 per cent workers, the 25 per cent ceiling did not go down well with the industry.

Amid this discontent, the tea industry stakeholders in Bengal raised the demand that half of the workers be allowed at a time. The industry was worried as the production in any year starts increasing from May and the trend continues till September. From October and onwards, it starts to decline.

The data with the Tea Board of India also indicate that the peak production season is from May to September.

In 2019, 424.06 million kilos of tea were produced in Bengal, out of which, 254.14 million kilos, that is, around 60 per cent was produced during these months.

In April last year, tea production in the state was 23.30 million kilos, which had increased to 43.35 million kilos in May and further to 46.76 million kilos in June.

“That is why we wanted the state to allow tea gardens to engage at least half of the workforce so that production can be carried out at the optimum level. The gardens will surely adhere to other directives like maintaining social distancing, mandatory use of masks and proper arrangements for sanitisation of the workers,” said Sanjoy Bagchi, secretary, Dooars Branch of Indian Tea Association.

Tea trade unions have also welcomed the move. “We, too, had appealed to the state government on the issue. It is good that the state has come up with the decision,” said Mohan Sharma, chairman, Cha Bagan Trinamul Congress Mazdoor Union.