Tea majors may face privilege proceedings

GUWAHATI, April 8 ? Tea majors having estates in Assam may face privilege proceedings in Assam Assembly as Speaker Prithvi Majhi today informed the House that he would refer comments made by certain tea companies undermining the State Assembly resolution favouring shifting of tea headquarters to the State from Kolkata. AGP legislators Dilip Kumar Saikia and Zoiinath Sharma drew the attention of the Speaker to the ??objectionable?? comments made by officials of tea companies against the State Assembly resolution for shifting of tea headquarters to the State. The AGP legislators tabled newspaper reports in the House in this regard and the Speaker promised to refer the matter to the Privilege Committee of the House. It may be mentioned that the April 4 edition of the Business Standard published from Kolkata reported that the tea industry was not keen on relocation of their headquarters to Assam. The newspaper quoted several tea officials representing tea giants like Warren Tea, Dhunseri Tea who had termed the shifting of headquarter to Assam as impractical. The Business Standard quoted Warren Tea managing director PK Bose, as saying. ??There is no law that can impose on the companies to shift their headquarters to Assam. The decision must be taken by the management of respective companies. Also what will happen to the unemployment factor in West Bengal if the office is shifted ??? The major tea companies having tea estates in Assam include the Tata Tea, Rossel Industries, Eveready Industries India, Warren Tea, George Williamson (Assam), Assam Company, Goodricke Group Limited and Dhunderi Tea. Out of these, George Williamson (Assam) which has its registered office in Assam, exports from Guwahati.