The Centre has proposed major amendments to the 1953 Tea Act to give more teeth to the regulator — Tea Board of India.
The move aims at plugging loopholes in relevant sections of the Tea Act to enable takeover of the management or control of tea gardens, which have been closed for over 90 days.
The amendments also propose new additions in the Act, like including in its ambit terms like small tea growers while defining tea estates. Special attention is also to be paid to protection of IPR of teas and monitoring of tea gardens. The Government feels that there is need to delete certain archaic provisions of the Indian Tea Act as they have become irrelevant. There is also a need to reinforce the powers and functions of the Tea Board so as to enable the body to regulate, develop and promote tea industry and trade while helping production and exports besides improving quality.
Surprisingly, the existing Act does not clearly define the powers of the Tea Board although it is widely known as the industry regulator. The amendments plan to lay out clear definitions in this respect while setting out the powers of the Tea Board chairman.
“The aim is to move from reactive to proactive,” sources say.
The Tea Board has sought powers to monitor the working of tea gardens, making its approach more direct and proactive than the present reactive attitude. It has been suggested that the Board shall constantly monitor the gardens and try to pre-empt closures.
It is felt that the Section 16 of the Tea Act, which provides for handing over management of sick gardens, has many limitations.
Source - The Hindu
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