GANGTOK, June 13: Patim is a small, shy village one and half hours away from Gangtok, which Lok Nath Sharma calls an organic tea haven. This is one village, which still bears testimony to the Sang-Martam Tea Growers Association (SMTGA) formed in 1998. People like Mr. Sharma have grown up on these fields of gold. He looks after his lush tea gardens, crops of wheat, maize and other vegetables like they are his family. Recently, in a joint initiative led by Mr Sharma, a mini tea processing unit was launched after acquiring a personal loan of Rs 10 lakh. The initiative, which can be termed as a bold step towards tea plantation in the region was able to convince a 30 percent subsidy from the Khadi Board. Until this time, there was no means of tea processing save very few forays into the Temi Tea factory, which is located about 40 km away. Now there are chances for us to keep aside the CTC bags. Yes, this is the same tea, which won accolades for its rich organic mountai...
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