The Trinamul Congress government will soon formulate a policy to grant land rights to tea garden workers, Chandrima Bhattacharya, the minister of state for finance (independent charge), said in the Assembly as she tabled the budget for the ensuing fiscal on Wednesday.
“In consideration of the long-standing demand of the tea garden workers for legitimate land documents, I am happy to announce that my government will bring out a policy for issuance of homestead ‘patta’ to the eligible tea garden workers,” Bhattacharya said in her budget speech.
In north Bengal, around 15 lakh people reside on tea estates and many of them are living for generations. None of them has, however, any right to the land on which they stay as it has been leased out to companies by the state government to grow tea.
Tea garden workers and their families form a considerable portion of the vote bank in three north Bengal districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar and parts of the North Dinajpur district.
“A sizable portion of them had sided with the BJP in some of the recent elections. In the forthcoming panchayat elections, their support will play an important role in determining the results in those districts. Besides, as rural polls will be held in the hills after a gap of over 20 years, Trinamul and its allies are leaving no stone unturned to grab power at the rural bodies in the tea belt,” said an observer.
Because of these political considerations, it was expected that the budget would contain some announcements on the long-standing demand of the tea workers and their families for land rights. A few days ago, Anit Thapa, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, had said the government would soon start a survey to identify the plots on which workers live in the plantations.
In the budget, Bhattacharya also announced that the tea sector would continue to enjoy exemption from the payment of cess and agricultural income tax for the next two financial years.
In the tea sector, rural employment and primary education cess is charged at 12 paisa for every kilo of green tea leaves. The agricultural income tax, on the other hand, is charged in different slabs on the basis of profits and is at least 30 per cent of the sale proceeds of green tea leaves.
The Indian Tea Association (ITA) — the largest body of tea planters in the country — welcomed the announcements and termed the budget “progressive and visionary”.
“The submissions made by the ITA for extending the period of the exemption from the payment of cess and agricultural income tax have been heeded by the government. The tea industry is going through acute financial stress and the exemptions will bring some relief to the planters,” said a release issued by the association.
Stakeholders of the small tea sector also welcomed the announcements but pointed out that the state had not come up with any policy for the regularisation of their land.
Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Associations, said thousands of small tea plantations had come up across north Bengal in the past 21 years but the conversion of the land’s status into plantation had not been made in the records of the state land and land reforms department.
He said the Left Front government had issued a cut-off date in 2001 and said any tea plantation which had come up afterwards was illegal.
“At that time, only 7,000- odd small tea growers had obtained necessary certificates from the land and land reforms department. As of now, there are more than 50,000 small tea growers in the region and most of their plantations have come up after the cut-off date. The state should come up with a policy for those plots’ regularisation. These growers cannot avail themselves of different benefits without the regularisation,” he said.
Reacting to the announcements for the tea sector, the BJP has said the state government merely reiterated in the budget its commitment to workers but didn’t fulfil any promise.
“Tea gardens are being completely given to real estate promoters. The government has allowed a section of pro-government businessmen to use tea gardens in a commercial manner. In every budget, the government speaks of issuing homestead pattas but there is no clarity on who will get those and through what process,” said SuvenduAdhikari, the leader of the opposition in the Assembly.
