Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday warned of withdrawing all incentives to tea gardens that fail to cooperate with the state government’s move to provide land rights to garden workers.

“The bill we have passed for tea gardens to accord land rights to tea garden workers is a transformative piece of legislation. The governor has given his assent and we have started the process of land acquisition,” Sarma said.

Garden land will be distributed among workers living in the “labour lines” under The Assam Fixation of Ceiling of Land Holdings (Amendment) Act, 2025. The amendment bill, passed in November, seeks to provide land rights to workers who do not own the land they reside on.

The 200-year-old Assam tea industry, which produces over 50 per cent of India’s tea output, has 825 estates with labour colonies spread over 2,18,553 bighas. The government plans to acquire and distribute this land to workers at a cost of ₹65 crore.

The move is expected to benefit 3.33 lakh tea garden worker families.

“But the cooperation of tea garden owners remains unsatisfactory. Therefore, we have decided to withdraw all incentives provided to gardens that do not cooperate with the acquisition process,” Sarma warned.

Highlighting the scale of support the government provides, he said: “We give incentives of around ₹150 crore annually to tea gardens — for orthodox tea and capital investment. Garden owners not supporting the process or going to court will lose all benefits. We will also review our relationship with them.”

“After 200 years of toil, tea garden workers deserve land rights. It is not right to interfere. I urge garden management not to disrupt this process for any reason,” he said.

The government’s tough stand follows a letter sent by the Consultative Committee of Planters’ Associations (CCPA), a body of tea planters, to the chief secretary in November. The CCPA flagged concerns over operational sustainability, financial implications and the legality of the move, sources said.

They also noted the significant political influence of the tea community.

“The passage of this transformative legislation has created hope among garden workers that they will finally get land ownership. With elections approaching, the government cannot backtrack on its commitment,” a source said.

Crime condemned

Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday also said the rest of the country should be educated about the Northeast to avoid incidents like the killing of Tripura student Angel Chakma in Dehradun.

The culprits involved should be booked and meted out severe punishments as a deterrent for the occurrence of such incidents, Sarma said while interacting with media persons here.

“If the accused are given harsh punishment, it will send a strong signal to the entire nation and such incidents will hopefully not recur,” he said.

The people of Northeast India “are proud Indians and the people in the rest of the country should be educated about the region and its people”, he said.

Chakma, a 24-year-old student hailing from Tripura, was doing his MBA in Dehradun, where he was fatally attacked by a group of intoxicated people who hurled racial abuses at him.

Additional inputs by PTI