P. Maheshwari to request Tea Board deputy chairperson Roshini Sen, who was present, to officiate for the minister at short notice.

None of the mandarins from Udyog Bhavan, the seat of the union commerce ministry in New Delhi, made it to Coonoor this time, indicating the importance given to the concerns of planters, said many at the two-day meet, which began Monday, in this small town atop the Nilgiri hills.

Conventionally, the union commerce minister or his deputy is the chief guest at the century-old UPASI annual conferences. As the present minister (Anand Sharma) is away in Geneva for the WTO negotiations on the Doha Round and his deputy Jyotiraditya Scindia is preoccupied, Kharge was invited to preside this year.

'This is not the first time when the union commerce or other central/state ministers failed to turn up for our annual meeting, which is the only important event of the year. Even chairmen of plantation boards skip the meet for some reason,' a coffee planter from Karnataka lamented.