Tea Association urges govt to take long-term steps to lessen impact of oilfield mishaps

Tea Association of India (TAI) on Wednesday raised certain concerns and expressed it to the government in a bid to adopt a long term mechanism to lessen the impact of oilfield eventualities such as the recent Baghjan Oilfield explosion in the near future.

TAI acknowledged the prompt action adopted by the Assam government for the assessment of the losses arising out of the fire in the oil well blast at Baghjan, however, also stressed, how tea garden lands have been acquired by the State government to facilitate exploration and digging of an oil field.

According to the Association, "Oil exploration work has serious repercussions on the soil and environment in and around the Tea Estates," adding, "the most important aspect is the workforce continues to remain perpetually apprehensive of their livelihood, should there be a recurrence of such at any point of time in the future".

The Tea Association said, the recent incident that occurred at Baghjan on May 27 has once again "brought some of the bare issues affecting the Tea Estates to the fore". In this connection, the Association stated, "This accident necessitated shifting a sizable number of workmen from the site of the fire and this is bound to affect Gas supplies to various power companies, fertilizer companies, and large number Tea Estates".

Citing incidents of previous oil leakages in the state, the Association has emphasized its impact on environmental changes and tea gardens as well,

The Association has stressed amid such incidents the apprehension amongst the Tea Industries having oil well within Tea Estate continues to persist and added the case of Lakwah Tea Estate in Sivsagar district of 520 hectre out of which 130 hectre has been acquired by the ONGC for oil exploration activities. This has had serious environmental repercussions on the soil and environment in and around the Tea Estates. But the most important aspect is that the workforce continues to remain perpetually apprehensive of their livelihood, should there be a recurrence of such at any point of time in the future.