Amitava Banerjee, MP, 7 Feb 2025, Darjeeling: The issue of land documents (Patta) to tea garden workers occupying the centre stage of Hill politics has further been propped up with the state government’s proposed decision to utilise 30 per cent of unutilised tea garden land for tourism and related industries.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressing the BGBS in Kolkata on Wednesday announced that tea plantations can now utilise up to 30 per cent of their uncultivated land for tourism and other industries.
Anit Thapa, President, BGPM, an alliance partner of the TMC, criticised misleading narratives being spread among tea garden workers and reaffirmed his stance on land distribution.
However, he stated: “If the government introduces policies that I do not agree with, I will voice my opposition. If these policies allow big investors to damage our tea gardens and hills, I will resist them.”
He assured that if the public opposed certain decisions, he would stand with them. “I am a public representative but do not believe in inciting people against the authorities or creating unnecessary legal and order situations.
These are technical matters, and while the government may have good intentions for our hills, there can be differences in our perspectives. If reducing unemployment in the hills comes at the cost of destroying its natural beauty, I will strongly oppose it,” he remarked.
Ajoy Edwards IGJF has written to CM Mamata Banerjee expressing strong objections. Dubbing the increase of 15 per cent unutilised tea garden land to 30 per cent for commercial, tourism and other industrial purpose,
Edwards wrote: “The decision is deeply unjust and fails to recognise the historical, cultural and rightful claims of the indigenous residents of these regions…
The land should rightfully belong to those who have lived, worked and sustained these tea estates for generations…Our people will not accept anything less than full land ownership rights of the land based on physical possession.”
Sumendra Tamang of the Hill Plantations Employees Union stated that it was a conspiracy to auction the tea-growing land along with the tea leaves. He called for a unified protest to stop this.
“Such is the pathetic condition of tea garden workers that they have to seek permission from the management to bury their dead…” stated Raju Bista, BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP, Darjeeling.
“The Chief Minister has not said that the tea bushes will be uprooted and that land will be handed out for other industries. This unutilised land under the tea garden management is just going to waste.
If there are tourism-related industries in which our people get jobs and don’t have to migrate away from the Hills, Terai and Dooars, what is the harm?” asked LB Rai of the TMC.
Courtesy & source: Millennium Post
https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/tea-garden-land-issue-occupies-centre-stage-of-hill-politics-597757
