A special team of Tea Board officials inspected several gardens in North Bengal to determine the quality of leaves manufactured in these estates.
An official of the Tea Board told PTI that several samples have been collected from these estates and their quality will be determined.
"The operation was conducted at various tea gardens in North Bengal over the last several days on a large scale. Tea Board has collected samples from these estates and future course of action will be determined as per provisions of the Tea Marketing Control Order (TMCO)," the official said.
President of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Association (CISTA) Bijoy Gopal Chakraborty said "We welcome the action taken by Tea Board in inspecting several gardens of North Bengal. We demand that exemplary action be taken against these entities so that it becomes a deterrent in future".
Chakraborty said CISTA had come to learn that some tea gardens are procuring tea waste from Assam and mixing it with .