Kolkata, June 28: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today asked tea companies to inform his government about any law and order problem particularly extortion bids in the estates, while urging the Centre to provide incentives for revival of the industry in the state. Gogoi, who held discussions with the Indian Tea Association and Tea Association of India during his two-day visit here, said "I have asked the Centre to provide incentives in the form of abolition of additional excise duty, export incentives and others to the industry, which is passing through a bad phase for some time now".

The state government, he said, has already constituted a committee headed by Dr Jayanta Madhav to go into the details of the industry's plight and submit a report by three months. Admitting that "there has been some incidents at tea estates," he asked tea companies to inform the state government and police about extortion bids.

"I have also asked the tea companies to change their management system and increase interactions with workers, so that they can understand the difficulties," Gogoi said.

The chief minister, however, expressed his government's inability to withdraw the green leaf cess - as demanded by the industry - "unless the Centre provides us Rs 60 crore, which we earn as the cess". Bureau Report