Declare Province 1 “tea special zone”

By Our Correspondent Birtamode, June 28: It has been demanded that tea cultivation, which is considered a major source of foreign exchange earnings, be accorded high importance in Province 1 and the province declared as tea special zone. Stakeholders have emphasized the need for the tea industry to be treated differently at the policy level.

Representatives of tea growers, tea farmers, trade unions, tea workers, and the Tea Development Board discussed the thematic problems in the tea sector in detail and pledged to move forward collectively to find a lasting solution to the problem.

The government's attention has also been drawn in this regard. Stakeholders have called on the three levels of government to draft appropriate regulations for a sustainable solution to the problem and designate Province 1 as a tea special zone in order to address the larger issue of tea workers and farmers.

The main political parties of Jhapa have also drawn the attention of the government to declare Province 1 as a tea special zone by formulating 

necessary policies for a sustainable solution to the problems in the tea sector. 

The CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, Janata Samajwadi Party, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, and CPN-ML have collectively called on the government to be serious towards resolving the tea sector problem.

Stakeholders say that the tea sector has not been a priority of the government even though Nepali tea worth more than Rs. 4 billion is being exported to the international market annually. The Chairman of the Nepal Tea Producers' Association, Suresh Kumar Mittal, said that the government should provide special facilities to the foreign exchange-earning tea sector.

During the interaction, the Board expressed a commitment to implement the Labour Act and Social Security Fund in the plantations under the Tea and Coffee Development Board from the next fiscal year. 

The government has operated seven orchards under the board. Earlier, questions were raised that the law had not been implemented in government-owned orchards.

At the meeting, president of Nepal Tea Producers Association Mittal, treasurer Vinay Raj Pokharel, Harka Bahadur Tamang on behalf of Farmers of Tea Producers Cooperative, vice president of Nepal Trade Union Federation Province 1 Santa Kumar Rai, in-charge of All Nepal Trade Union Federation Province 1 Bhupal Sapkota, president of Nepal Trade Union Congress Yagya Pratap Adhikari, president of Nepal Tea Plantation Workers Union, Deepak Tamang, president of All Nepal Tea Workers Union, Sita Sapkota, acting head of National Tea and Coffee Development Board Regional Office, Jhapa, Suman Trikhatri, and Agriculture Technician Ananta Dhungana informed about the thematic 

problems in this area. The discussion was coordinated by Dialogue Group of Jhapa.