Tea should be decleared national drink status : Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia announced that tea will be declared as national drink of India.
Ahluwalia urged the central government to declare the status of the tea April next year.
Addressing the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Assam Tea Planters Association held at Tocklai in Jorhat district on Ahluwalia said tead will be declared as the national drink status by April 17 next year for the occassion of 212th birth anniversary of the first Assamese tea planter and national movement leader Moniram Dewan.
“India is the largest producer and consumer of black tea in the world. So we need to be produced better qualities,” he added.
Ahluwalia urged the tea planters and producers to concentrate and continue producing more varieties as the present two varieties of “Orthodox” and “CTC.”
Tea industry is India’s second largest employer with over 1.4 milion workers and 1700 companies involved here.
According to industry estimates, the total turnover of the India’s tea industry is likely to be reached about Rs 33,000 crore by 2015.
