Guwahati: Assam BJP legislators on Wednesday sought an inquiry into alleged illegal sale of tea garden land provided by the state government on lease for tea cultivation.

Raising the issue during question hour in the Assembly, Tinsukia BJP legislator Sanjoy Kisan alleged that a tea garden in Tinsukia district of Upper Assam had sold such a land and several other gardens had set up other industries on these lands.

"It has come to our notice that government land provided to garden owners or companies on lease for cultivation of tea are sold by the garden owners as their ancestral properties," he said.

Gauhati (East) legislator Siddhartha Bhattacharya said tea garden land in Soonsali near Guwahati had also been sold in violation of the norms.

Lahowal BJP legislator Rituparna Baruah demanded a high-level inquiry into the sale of government-owned tea garden land by the lessees.

Industry minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, while replying to Kisan's question, said he would ask the Tinsukia deputy commissioner to conduct an inquiry and submit a report on the allegations.

"Lands are leased out to tea garden owners for cultivation of tea against which they provide revenue to the government. They can't sell the land but some gardens have set up some subsidiary industries with permission from the government," he said.

Kisan also complained that Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) had acquired nearly 1,500 bighas at Gelapukhuri tea garden in Tinsukia for setting up a plastic park but no industry had been set up yet.

Patowary said the process to set up the park had not been started yet because some people living in about 500 bighas of the land had moved Gauhati High Court seeking compensation. "If they withdraw the case, we can work out a compensation package. The plastic park can generate a lot of employment for them too." He said the AIDC has already leased out 34,900 square metre land to 12 industrial groups.