The State Government will look at measures to improve the scope of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) so that it benefits the plantation sector, Commissioner for Labour, Government of Tamil Nadu, P. Amudha said here on Saturday.
At the annual meeting of the Planters Association of Tamil Nadu (PAT), she said that the scheme was expected to be revised soon. “We will see how the plantation sector can benefit from it with better scope,” she said.
The Commissioner, who visited the plantations in the region on Friday, said trade union leaders were happy that wages were paid on time. However, they expressed unhappiness over the quality of welfare measures provided to the plantation workers. They had said that though the facilities were available, quality needed to be improved. Workers needed good health to give better productivity. Though hospitals were there, availability of doctors during weekends was a problem, she pointed out. These issues should be addressed and the Government would also look at working with the industry and coming out with measures that would solve these problems.
She said the Government would study the method adopted in Kerala and Karnataka on demarcation of forest and plantation areas so that it could be done in Tamil Nadu too.
Vijayan Rajes, president of the United Planters’ Association of Tamil Nadu, said tea prices had gone up after 2006 but fell this year. He was hopeful that tea prices would start increasing soon. The prices of natural rubber had crashed during the last one year and even tapping was not viable in several areas. “We are positive that concrete steps will be taken by the Centre soon for the rubber sector,” he said.
In the case of coffee, production of the Arabica variety had dropped dramatically in the last two decades, and if the trend continued, India could become a net importer of Arabica coffee.
The association would continue to work on issues related to sharing of social costs, Labour Act, and National Land Reforms Policy. The State and Central Governments should take a holistic approach towards the plantation sector, he said.
TGB Pinto, chairman of the PAT, explained the problems faced by the plantation sector and sought solutions for the same.
