TEA-Sinister Goings-On

ECONOMIC AN D POLITICAL WEEKLY TEA Sinister Goings-On to crores and crores of rupees. But perhaps the most shocking part is the growing tendency among a section of the broking community to adopt questionable means to widen their business. One of the commonest methods now being followed is to advance money to the less affluent gardenowners, now increasingly facing the bank credit crunch, and thereby book the produce of these estates in advance. It is in a sense a somewhat sophisticated version of the "dadan" system which, we are given to understand, often denies the producer Ins rightful returns. In tea, the price is determined by bids at the auction sales; even then, there are a lot of details, like valuing the tea for sale, where the brokers are supreme.