Bandhs sponsored by various organisations are affecting tea industry of the State with a cascading effect on the quality of its products. This is when the tea industry here is on the path of resurgence after a several-year-long recession. Vice-chairman of the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) Bidyananda Barkakoty said that the frequent bandhs called by different organisations are affecting the tea industry severely. In the current month alone, there were three statewide bandhs within the span of a week, he said. Barkakoty, also a tea planter himself, has made an appeal to all the organisations taking recourse to this form of agitation, to exempt tea industry from its purview, particularly during the main plucking season between May and October. The best tea of the season is produced during May and June. The tea leaves plucked behind schedule even by a day, leads to a lot of mess as the quality of the finished products and its impact goes on in a cyclic order for several weeks, Barkakoty said. He recalled the tea industry adage