OOTY: The Tea Board of India conducted an interaction meet with progressive small tea growers (STG) at Coonoor near here on Thursday.
Tea Board is conducting various training programme/demonstration to improve the quality of green tea leaf(GTL)in the STG sector so as to facilitate the tea growers to fetch better price for GTL which they produce. During the meeting, progressive STG, their manufacturing units and specialty tea producing units in the district participated and shared their experiences.
M. Balaji, executive director, Tea Board, Zonal office at Coonoor addressed the gathering and also interacted with the participants.
This meeting with the stakeholders was aimed to get the suggestions in framing suitable schemes to the needy STG so as to produce good quality tea and to fetch better remunerative price.
At the meet, 26 wards of the plantation workers who excelled in SSLC and plus-two examinations were conferred with the “Nehru Award” constituted by the human resource development scheme(HRDS) of the Tea Board. The award carried a lump sum grant of Rs.8,000 for SSLC level and Rs.10,000 for plus-two level. Mr. Balaji said that educational stipend, book and school uniform grant, financial assistance for disabled persons and capital grant for medical expenses for tea plantation workers families are covered under the HRDS scheme.
