PATHARGAON, 26 Mar: Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Friday commissioned the Manna tea factory, run by the Lohit Valley Agro Horti Industrial Cooperative Society Limited, in Pathargaon in Namsai district.
The factory has a processing capacity of 50 lakhs kgs to 60 lakhs kgs of green tea leaf per annum.
Mein highlighted the benefits of the state government’s new industrial policy and the subsidizing of the cost of electrification in small and medium scale industries within a limit of Rs 75 lakhs to Rs 2 crore.
He informed that “for promotion of tea industry, and for plantation of tea, a provision of Rs 10 crore is provided in the state budget for the year 2021-22.”
He urged youths to seek to become self-employed by becoming small tea growers. He also lauded the initiative of the cooperation department for ensuring socioeconomic development of the people by facilitating financial assistance to cooperative societies from the National Cooperative Development Corporation.
Mein advised tea factory owners to form an association to place their genuine demands for ease of doing business in the state, and said that “the tea factories of Assam is running on gas while tea factories of Arunachal Pradesh are running mainly on hsd/coal.
“As a result, there is a substantial difference in costing of processed tea in between two states,” he said.
“The association of the tea factories of Namsai district should sit together, identify their genuine problems, and suggest remedial measures to the government for subsidizing the cost of hsd/coal, etc, as most of the time electricity is not available to run the factories in our state,” he added.
Mein cautioned the youths against drug addiction and urged them to dedicate themselves to work hard “to prove their worth of employability in the upcoming industries.”
The DCM also highlighted the state government’s policy on ease of doing business to attract external investment for setting up industries, which will generate employment and open up ancillary entrepreneurship.
Mein also inspected the Manna tea factory. (DCM’s PR Cell)
