DIBRUGARH, July 24 ? Assam?s second tea auction centre is likely to be established here before the end of the year, if the current progress in the matter is any indication. The Dibrugarh Nagarik Sangha first raised the demand for a tea auction centre here in 1976, considering that most of the State?s quality tea is produced in the present undivided Dibrugarh district.
The demand from the planters as well as leading citizens of the area led to the recent constitution of the Dibrugarh Tea Auction Centre Establishment Committee, with third generation tea planter and a leading light of the Assam Sahitya Sabha, Debi Prasad Bagrodia as president.
Since the constitution of the committee, a memorandum for the Union Commerce Minister has been prepared and handed over to the minister Kamal Nath. Recently, two members of the committee, Robin Borthakur and Manoj Jalan personally handed over a copy of the memorandum to the chairman of the Tea Board, Naba Kumar Bora. Both told the Tea Board chief that the Jayanta Madhav Committee Report has strongly advocated the cause of a second tea auction centre in Assam, and that this centre has to be in upper Assam due to obvious reasons.
During their discussions, both Borthakur and Jalan presented a strong case for the second tea auction centre in the city, citing Dibrugarh?s pre-eminent place on the world?s tea map. They also pointed to the infrastructural and communication advantages Dibrugarh has, to enable quick establishment of a tea auction centre in the city. According to Borthakur, the Tea Board chairman gave several suggestions on matters relating to the early establishment of a tea auction centre here and that it would be prudent to commence the new centre as a branch unit of the well established Guwahati Tea Auction Centre. Borthakur added that the Tea Board chairman also suggested that the Assam Government could be approached for incentives to buyers and brokers to transact at the proposed auction centre in Dibrugarh.
West Bengal, which produces a fraction of Assam?s tea output, has three auction centres. The earliest is the one at Kolkata, the second at Siliguri and the third at Jalpaiguri. According to the Dibrugarh Tea Auction Centre Establishment Committee, the proposed tea auction centre here would be a fully electronic facility, with emphasis on digitally secured online trading of tea.