West Bengal state assembly has voted for “West Bengal Tea Plantation Employees’ Welfare Fund Bill, 2015”. This bill will ensure overall welfare of tea plantation workers in the state.
The bill will provide interest subvention and matching grants to the employers of tea gardens as soft loan which they may take for undertaking social welfare schemes, medical facilities, housing, primary education, potable water supply, sanitation and child care and for providing other basic amenities for the families of tea plantations employees. The bill has provision to provide scholarship to the children of tea garden employees for undergoing training in technical institutes and polytechnics.
Further, it also has provisions to provide margin money as soft loan to incentivize the present owners or the new owners of the sick and closed tea gardens to infuse additional capital through bank loan for rejuvenation and modernization of the tea gardens.