The BJP announced plans to hold a demonstration with “one lakh tea garden workers” at Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat for north Bengal in Siliguri, to protest against the recent allotment of up to 30 per cent of tea garden land for non-tea use.
Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP Nandigram MLA and leader of the Opposition, at a public meeting at Subhashini tea estate playground at Kalchini, some 40km from Alipurduar town, said that the demonstration would start after the higher secondary examinations.
“More than one lakh tea garden workers under the banner of Bharatiya Tea Workers Union will demonstrate at Uttarkanya to protest against the state government’s tea land police after the higher secondary examinations are over,” said Adhikari.
The HS exams are scheduled from March 3 to 18.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee during the recent Global Business Summit announced plans to increase the allotment of tea land from 15 per cent to 30 per cent for non-tea related activities.
The Tea Tourism and Allied Business Policy, 2019, allowed the management of tea gardens to use “unutilised and fallow land” up to 15 per cent of the estate area and not exceeding 150 acres.
Mamata doubled it. A notification to increase the land cap to 30 per cent was also made public on Saturday.
The decision has triggered massive protests, with tea workers and unions seeing this as a move to get more corporate investments in tea gardens at the cost of workers.
Adhikari, during his 25-minute speech, only spoke on the tea issue, which is a clear indication that the party is looking at making it one of the crucial issues in the tea belt ahead of next year’s election.
“If the TMC comes to power next year they will hand over more land to businessmen,” Adhikari said.
“This government is for the businessman and not for the garden workers,” said Adhikari who added that the CPM lost power after they handed over a tea garden for real estate development in Siliguri.
The BJP announced a series of public meetings in north Bengal after their legislators staged a walkout from the Bengal Assembly on Wednesday to protest the speaker’s refusal to allow a discussion on an adjournment motion over the government’s latest tea land announcement.