Resident staff join garden ops

Kolkata: On Day One of Unlock 1.0, tea estates in north Bengal were seen getting back its normal flow of operations.
Arijit Raha, the secretary-general of the Indian Tea Association (ITA), the largest planters’ body in the country, told TOI that almost all resident workers were back at the gardens. “Worker attendance has improved. It is the need of the hour to revive second flush tea output,” he said.
The state government has allowed 100% deployment of workforce in the tea gardens from Monday. “The government’s decision has helped boost productivity and quality of second flush tea,” said Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty, the president of the small tea growers’ body Cista. Small tea plantations across Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar also set in motion their operations with full strength. The Tea Association of India (TAI), another major planters’ body, said, all its member gardens reported normal attendance at the level of pre-lockdown period .
Earlier, the government had allowed 25% workforce deployment to conduct skiffing activity, and subsequently 50% to start plucking operations. According to the planters, social-distancing norms were being properly maintained at the tea gardens.