'Tea Estate at Jiri in dormant state'
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 22 2014 : Thanks to the lethargic attitude of the State Government, the State Tea Estate at Jiribam lies inoperative notwithstanding its huge resource potential.

Although the quality of the Tea estate's product is accredited as an A-grade, the garden and the tea factory have been left unattended by the authority concerned for reason best known to them.

As such, thick bushes covered the tea garden and no machines were to be seen at the factory, according to the President of All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU), Wangkhemcha Shamjai.

AMWJU president W Shamjai and vice-president Ratan Luwang toured Jiribam subdivision of Imphal East during May 15 to 17 .

Briefing media persons today at the Manipur Press Club, W Shamjai said the Tea Garden, located three kilometres away from Jiribam Market and spread across 425 hectares of land, once produced 3000-4000 kgs of tea leaves daily earning a monthly revenue of about Rs 13 lakh-14 lakh.

However, there has been no regular staff to man the tea garden since 2009 after downsizing of the staff.

The tea garden has at present one Field Assistant and a Field Officer on contract basis.

Ironically, both the staff were left unpaid for over four years now.

Shamjai further said that the tea plants were left unattended leaving the garden to turn into a thicket.

No machines were found at the factory.

Moreover, some people have started to encroach the land.

If the Govt is unable to maintain, it could at least privatise the tea estate, W Shamjai said.

He further said that the Sports Complex at Jiribam, construction of which was started during 2010-11, is already in a dilapidated state before construction work of the complex is completed.

Ratan Luwang said that he along with the President were inspecting a site for setting up of AMWJU branch office at Jiribam.

He also said that the Union would conduct a press tour to Loktak Lake on May 31 in collaboration with Loktak Project authority to survey the Loktak Lake area.

The AMWJU would also conduct a tour to Myanmar in the last part of June to study the development in Thailand, Myanmar and Moreh vis-a-vis India's Look East Policy.

Ratan also highlighted the inconveniences faced by the public due to two sabotage attempts on a bridge along NH-37 in Cachar district since last November while drawing the attention of the Govt on the matter.

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