The central government has decided to bring small tea growers of Bengal under the ambit of two welfare schemes meant for farmers, to help them obtain an annual financial assistance and also a monthly pension once they turn 60.

The Tea Board of India, which has been assigned the task of implementing the scheme, has said that it is the state government’s responsibility to identify prospective beneficiaries of these two schemes, but also allowed small tea growers to approach the board’s office directly for enrolment.

Small tea growers are classified as those who don’t own accompanying factories and whose estate area is less than 25 acres. There are around 50,000 such growers in north Bengal.

The Tea Board of India’s decision to allow small growers to also approach them directly has not gone down well with sections of Trinamul leaders who suspect that the Centre is playing politics to ensure that the BJP gets the support of these planters.

Sources said the benefits of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana or PM-Kisan, under which a farmer is eligible to receive an annual financial support of Rs 6,000 in three instalments, and the PM Kisan Mandan Yojana, which provides a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to a farmer who is 60 years and above, have been extended to the small tea growers.

“It was a longstanding demand of the growers that all such schemes meant for farmers be made available to them. This is because they too are farmers and grow tealeaves, a cash crop. Accordingly, the government has decided to include them under these schemes,” said a source in the tea board.

“For PM Kisan, the entire responsibility of identification of beneficiaries rests with the state… but individual growers can also approach the board’s office for enrolment,” the source added.

Trinamul leaders questioned the move.

“We fail to understand why the Centre and the tea board are not utilising the administrative infrastructure of the state to implement these schemes…. The way they are using the tea board, we suspect that the BJP is trying to milk these schemes with political interests in mind.

“They are trying to build the BJP’s base among the small tea growers,” said Mohan Sharma, the chairman of the Cha Bagan Trinamul Congress Mazdoor Union.