Privatisation of rubber gardens stalled

Instead, steps will be taken to make the 15 gardens in the public sector viable by improving their managements and raising productivity, official sources said.

The privatisation decision was taken in November last year as the gardens incurred a loss of Tk 40 crore in the last eight years. Those could not attain even half of the yearly production target of 4,000 in the last six years, sources said.

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The complexity in privatisation arose over Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation (BFIDC)'s ownership of gardens' lands, which were leased from the Department of Forests in 1960s for rubber plantation. The lease terms go against sale of the lands, the sources said.

There are 85,00 acres of land in four rubber gardens in Sylhet region, 16,500 in seven gardens in Chittagong and 9,000 acres in Madhupur of Tangail.

Rubber plantation began in 1971-72 in Sylhet region, in 1969-70 in Chittagong and in 1999-2000 in Madhupur region.

More than, 50 per cent of the country's rubber production come from gardens in Sylhet.

But, since plantation, faulty planning, use of low quality seeds and plants, influence of trade unions, irregularity and corruption by the managements and bureaucratic tangles turned the public sector gardens loss-making.

On the other hand private sector gardens did well in the last few years.

Six out of seven gardens in Chittagong are almost shut for more than three years. Looting of rubber trees by organized gangs has been going on unabated. Natural calamities also hit those gardens badly several times.

Gardens in Madhupur region are now getting out of the crisis as these are being run on contract basis, the sources claimed.

The four gardens in Sylhet with 7600 acres of plantation area also marked some improvement in recent years by raising production, reducing expenditure following some steps by the authorities.

The authorities are hopeful of making the situation better if those are run on contract basis instead of employing regular labourers. But for implementing a 'golden handshake' for 650 employees, Tk 10 crore is needed, they said.

The gardens in Sylhet earned Tk 5.5 crore profit in fiscal 1994-95 but started losing since 1997-98.