The Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front (IGJF) held a rally and public meeting in Mirik on Saturday, a pointer to the tea protest in the Darjeeling hills getting structured, raising an alarm in the industry.

Protests have been simmering over the non-implementation of minimum wages, the state notification to grant 5 decimals of land to tea workers and the failure to get a 20 per cent bonus in the last couple of years.

However, these protests had mostly been scattered and lacked cohesion.

The Ajoy Edwards-led IGJF is giving structure to these protests, which gained new momentum after chief minister Mamata Banerjee last Tuesday announced that her government would allow investors to use 30 per cent of tea garden land for non-tea use from the previous ceiling of 15 per cent.

"These (hills) are our kipat (our homeland). We have no vacant space for others, forget about 30 per cent, we don’t have even 1 per cent vacant space. There will be no survey, too (for the 5 decimal land scheme),” said Edwards.

Edwards, who is also an elected Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Sabha member, announced a series of protests.

“If there is no concrete solution on the bonus issue, no one in the hills will pluck first flush tea,” said Edwards.

First flush plucking is set to start on February 27 and this leaf fetches the highest price. Edwards wants the bonus negotiation to take place not during the Puja period but immediately.

The tea management, which is worried over Edwards’s protest call, has said that the finances of the gardens would be clear only on March 31. They have hinted that negotiations would be possible only then. “We are closely monitoring the developments,” said an industry source.

The IGJF also came down heavily on GTA chief Anit Thapa, who is the president of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) and an ally of the Trinamool Congress in the hills.

Edwards said that since Thapa is close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, he should come up with a solution on minimum wages and 5 decimal land issue and get the 30 per cent land cap scrapped within a week.

"If he cannot solve this issue within a week, we will take our protest to Kurseong,” said Edwards. Thapa hails from Kurseong.

Thapa on Friday had also expressed his opposition to the 30 per cent land cap in tune with the popular sentiment in the hills.

The state government formed a 24-member minimum wage advisory committee to settle the wage issue in tea gardens in 2015. However, there has been no settlement even after 10 years.

Workers also want the state government to grant the entire land under their possession in the tea garden and not just 5 decimals. Tea garden land is leased out by the state government to tea companies.

While the 5 decimal land scheme protest is louder in Darjeeling hills, tribal leader from the Dooars, Rajesh Lakra, also attended the rally in Mirik and promised to start the protest in the plains, too.

Edwards on Saturday also attacked BJP legislators like Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, MLA Neeraj Zimba and Kurseong MLA B.P. Bajgain for failing to stand by the community in this “hour of crisis.”