Govt allows 50% manpower in tea gardens and bidi industry

Kolkata: In a bid to impose the lockdown with a humane face, the Mamata Banerjee government has allowed engaging 50 percent of the total strength at bidi industry and for operations including plucking of leaves at tea gardens.

The state government has issued an order in this regard on Monday stating, "In reference to the orders issued in this regard earlier - it is further clarified that operations including plucking in tea garden is allowed with deployment up to 50 percent of the total regular workforce at a time."

According to an official, the step has been taken considering that some crucial works at tea gardens including plucking of leaves need to be done within a certain period of time and more manpower is needed to execute the same.

Considering it is essential to ensure that functioning at tea gardens doesn't get affected, the decision has been taken to increase the percentage of

manpower that can be engaged from 25 to 50 percent. The state government has allowed the deployment of 25 percent of the total manpower for the same and it was given

following requests of

the Centre.

All work has to be carried out by maintaining the set norms of physical distancing and other lockdown protocols. "Proper hygiene practice also has to be ensured" and management of tea gardens has to ensure compliance with the set norms.

Earlier also, the state government gave relaxation to tea processing units to carry out activities with 15 percent manpower by following all precautionary measures.

In addition, the state government had also given its nod to initiate e-auction of

tea by maintaining all norms of social distancing during the lockdown period following the

permission by sending an

e-mail to [email protected].