Assam
Tea garden workers plucking tea leaf. (File image)

Plucking of tea leaves in almost all the big tea gardens as well as in the gardens of the small tea growers began in Tinsukia district from Sunday.

The tea garden factories as well as the brought leaf factories in the district also started their operations from Sunday.

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On Saturday, a meeting was held at the conference hall of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Tinsukia with the Minister of State for Labour Sanjay Kishan in the chair.

The meeting was attended by representatives of ABITA, TAI, BCP, AASTGA, ACMS, ATTSA, AASAA and bought leaf factories, besides the DC and SP of Tinsukia district.

As per a decision arrived at the meeting, the Deputy Commissioner of Tinsukia district Bhaskar Pegu allowed all the tea gardens , the small tea growers and the bought leaf factories to function from today with strict instructions to follow the COVID-19 safety protocol right from plucking of leaves upto packaging of made tea.

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Moreover, the tea gardens were allowed to use only 50% of their workers and operate till 3.30 pm.

However, the factories in the premises of the gardens may function beyond that time.

On the other hand, vehicles carrying plucked tea leaves from the gardens of the small tea growers were allowed to ply between 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm.

Such vehicles were asked to collect road pass from the local police stations.

After receiving necessary permission from the administration, all the tea gardens in Tinsukia district started normal functioning since today morning.

The general secretary of ACMS Rupesh Gowala too urged the managements of the tea gardens to follow COVID-19 safety protocol while urging the labourers to follow the guidelines issued by the garden managements.