NEW DELHI: Assam’s powerful perfume mafia is smelling trouble. Workers engaged in extraction of perfume sticks in the North-east and North Bengal are likely to get a protective umbrella body, the Perfume Board, on the lines of Tea Board. “The Centre has done a thorough study on the business model of perfume extraction in the North-east and North Bengal. Those who hold the monopoly over perfume extraction in the region are in connivance with forest officials,” said a senior officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, who is closely monitoring the creation of the board at the insistence of the PMO.
The Centre is setting up a co-ordinated plan to organise perfume workers under one shield. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ranchi, will offer scientific solutions for efficient perfume extraction and processing. Packaging perfumes according to intenational standards will be part of the board’s mandate. “We will be approaching Indian embassies in the Middle East to assess the perfume market, besides seeking suggestions on setting up marketing channels for the products of the proposed Perfume Board. Dubai will be the focus,” added the official.
Incidentally, Dubai is the business focus of Assam’s perfume king Badruddin Ajmal, head of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). It has two Lok Sabha members, including Ajmal. It is the third-largest political party in Assam and BJP’s sworn foe. The saffron party accuses AIUDF of patronising illegal Bangladeshi immigrants with “strong financial power”.
The team of officials who spent days in Jorhat in Assam and other areas to study perfume extraction from indigenous trees said that sticks bearing scents are chiselled after long hours of labour, with workers getting just `2,000 for every 10 gram. “The perfume stick is extracted from a small tree grown on tea estates, private land, and forest areas. Locals face hardships due to rules of the forest department and the ministry of environment prohibiting felling of trees. The Sushi Agar tree and its variants from which perfume sticks are extracted sell for a minimum of `1 lakh,” said the official.