Who are they protecting he

--Blair

Statesman News Service
DARJEELING, Dec. 28. - The Tea Board has proposed the formation of a
'stakeholders' coordination committee to put an end to smuggling of
green leaf from Nepal by some Darjeeling tea gardens located in the
Mirik area.
The errant tea gardens mix their leaf with cheap Nepal leaf and pass it
off as Darjeeling tea, which is a violation of the newly instituted
Geographical Indicator Act as well as the older measure, Certified
Trade Mark (CTM) that Darjeeling tea as a product enjoys.
The Tea Board's move complements the efforts that the Darjeeling tea
industry has been making to protect its product in terms of an
intellectual property. The Geographical Indicator Act not only affords
Darjeeling tea an unprecedented level of protection but also obliges
the industry to protect the integrity of the manufacturing chain.
The formation of a stakeholders' committee was mooted by Tea Board
chairman, Mr Basudeb Banerjee, at a meeting of the industry in Siliguri
recently. Besides the management, the committee will comprise
representatives from the district administration, law enforcement
agencies like the police and central excise, Tea Board officials and
the trade unions, said Mr Sundeep Mukerjee, branch secretary,
Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA).
The committee will also look into "all other relevant interests of
the industry," he added.
The committee will monitor the movement of green tea leaf in the
region. According to industry sources, the main violators are three tea
estates in the Mirik area which borders Nepal. The violating gardens
claim that they are procuring green leaf from closed tea gardens of
Darjeeling, when they are actually buying from Nepal.