Alipurduar, April 22: The benefits of the three-tier panchayat system have failed to cover those living on leased land of tea gardens and in forest villages. This despite the fact that they constitute a major chunk — there are 153 tea gardens and 51 forest villages in Jalpaiguri district alone — of the votebank in the rural polls slated for May.

From bank loans for self-employment schemes to the Pradhan Mantri’s Gram Sadak Yojna and Indira Awas Yojna, garden workers and forest villagers have been left out of the loop because they are unable to show themselves as owners of the land.

For loans, land is the asset against which it is issued. Roads, too, cannot be constructed under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna because garden workers or forest villagers cannot contribute leased land for the project.

Similarly, no houses can be constructed under the Indira Awas Yojna.

All this, however, has not stopped the candidates for the panchayat elections from visiting the residents.

“They are not embarrassed and still ask for votes. You tell them on the face that we get nothing from the panchayat system and they will retort that they can do nothing,” said Sanjit Rava, a resident of Poro forest village near Buxa Tiger Reserve (west).

Not only that, houses damaged by elephants in gardens are not compensated for by the forest department since they do not stand on land owned by the villagers.

The Bengal government had brought the forest villages and gardens under the panchayat system in 1998.

“But the corresponding changes in the Plantation Labour Act 1953 and Forest Conservation Act 1927 were not made,” said Manohor Tirkey, the PWD minister of state and general secretary of the Dooars Cha Bagan Workers’ Union affiliated to the RSP’s labour wing, the UTUC. “Jyoti Basu was the chief minister at that time. I had repeatedly asked him to solve the legal complication first and then introduce the system. All the trade unions protested from 1996 onwards, but there was no result.”