Tinsukia: The All Assam Small Tea Growers’ Association (AASTGA) has mounted intense pressure on federal regulators, demanding an immediate crackdown on a manufacturing unit operating in the Tinsukia district today. The industrial body has alleged rampant, systematic statutory non-compliance that directly threatens consumer safety and aggressively degrades the internationally celebrated brand value of Assam tea.
In a comprehensive formal memorandum submitted to the Chief Executive Director of the Tea Board of India’s North Eastern Zonal Office in Guwahati, the central leadership of the growers' organization raised severe alarms over the daily operations of the Pengeri Garh tea factory.
Citing an escalating crisis of quality control, the association has called for an absolute and immediate halt to all manufacturing, processing, and packaging activities at the facility until a transparent, comprehensive lab evaluation of its total output is completed.
The memorandum, officially signed and dispatched by the association’s general secretary Jagat Handique, alleged that the factory had been producing extremely low-grade tea in gross violation of Tea Board regulations and the core statutory mandates of the Tea Marketing Control Order (TMCO), 2003.
According to Handique, the processing facility has consistently bypassed standard operating protocols, choosing instead to prioritize high-volume output at the expense of consumer safety. "The material rolling out of this specific facility is not just substandard; it is completely unfit for human consumption," Handique stated firmly in the official document. "Allowing such adulterated, low-grade tea to flood the domestic market actively compromises public health.
Furthermore, it deals a catastrophic blow to the hard-earned reputation of Assam's premium tea industry, effectively undercutting thousands of honest small tea growers who strictly adhere to quality parameters to sustain the rural economy."