Strapped by an acute financial crisis, the Tocklai Tea Research Institute is defaulting on its statutory payments and has not been able to clear the dues of its retiring scientists. The country’s premier tea research institution, jointly funded by the government and industry through the Tea Research Association (TRA), has also been defaulting on provident fund payments for its current employees.
The more than 100-year-old Tocklai centre at Jorhat in Assam is the hub of tea research in the country and has been funded by the government and industry since 1964.
“In this fiscal, ₹9.7 crore is pending out of a ₹10.5 crore grant,” said Joydeep Phukan, Secretary TRA. “This has led to statutory payments’ defaults. About 20 retired scientists and 30 support-staff who have retired have not been paid their PF and LTA dues,” he said, adding that there had been PF defaults for the 220 current employees too.
“The PF authorities are threatening to seize Tocklai’s bank accounts if dues remain uncleared after March-end,” he said.
The crisis has been triggered by a sharp cut in the 12th plan allocation under R&D and worsened by the plan’s delayed finalisation.
There are about 200 scientists at the 10 research stations of TRA conducting scientific and advisory services covering more than 70% of the total tea production.
P. K. Bezboruah, Chairman,TRA said that the association had tried to tide over the issue by raising the member subscription fees for its members by more than 65% since 2014-15.
He said that Tocklai needs about ₹30 crore annually to run its activities and faces a ₹12-crore funding gap.
“Government gave us ₹11.6 crore in 2015-16 and ₹75 lakh so far this year,” Mr. Phukan said
Santosh Sarangi, Tea Board deputy chairman and chairman said that it had been giving grants to the TRA in accordance with the releases available with the Tea Board under the R & D head.
“We are expecting some further allocation in the current year’s budget and in case of allocation, some dues of TRA will be cleared.”
TRA’s recent work includes the release of new tea-clone and seed-stock varieties to combat climate change and pest attacks.
