Tezpur (Assam): Strong resentment is prevailing among the small tea growers of Assam following a downward trend of price of tea with the planters of the north bank of Brahmaputra suspending plucking of leaves.
Protesting they were being “deprived” of the prescribed price rate offered to major tea growers in the state, the small tea growers also strew over one lakh kg leaves plucked on Saturday on the NH-52 at Biswanath Chariali blocking it for two hours.
About three thousand small tea growers and their supporters blocked the road, Jitu Saikia general secretary of Sonitpur Small Tea Growers Association said.
According to Assam State Small Tea Grower Association executive member Krishna Sankar Hazarika, the price rate of raw tea grown by small tea gardens in the north bank has been reduced from Rs 21 to Rs 10.
The association had been demanding 65 per cent of price against tea auction price as prescribed by the Tea Board of India, Hazarika said. (UNI)
