Mamata considers tea tourism to benefit tea gardens

Kolkata, Dec 15 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday mentioned that her government will consider tea tourism to benefit tea plantations in the state."Today is International Tea Day. In #Bangla, we have allocated more than Rs 1,000 crore for the welfare of tea garden workers since 2011. Tea tourism is also under our consideration," Banerjee tweeted.She further added in the tweet post that the government has been providing "35 kg rice at Rs 2 per kg, electricity and water supply for free to tea gardens".The International Tea Day campaign was launched in 2005 by trade unions, small tea growers and civil society organisations in Asia and Africa to address problems like wages, work conditions and so on, faced by small tea producers.
--IANS bnd/oeb/ksk