Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government is set to offer six tea gardens in north Bengal on lease for three years as the workers were not getting their wages.
The decision was taken at the Cabinet meeting at Nabanna on Tuesday. After the meeting the Chief Minister said once these gardens are leased out, if the workers get their wages properly, the lease rights may be extended up to 30 years. “Six tea gardens were not properly running due to technical problems. They were not closed but they could not pay the wages to the workers. If they can run the tea garden successfully and workers get wages the lease rights may be extended up to 30 years. We have decided to allow them to give their land on lease for three years for now” Banerjee said while addressing a press conference.
Her government on Tuesday cleared a proposal to give on lease land lying in the tea gardens for the development of tourism centres and homestays in North Bengal. Banerjee said that to promote tea tourism in North Bengal and to generate more employment, the state would allow homestay and hotels on 15 per cent of leased out tea garden land where tea cultivation was not done and therefore lying vacant.
She alleged that some people were spreading rumours over the utilisation of tea garden lands and said that lands are only leased out up to 15 acre and no freehold rights are given.
At the BGBS, Banerjee had said: “Wherever land is available in tea gardens, where tea plantations are not there, we will allow 30% for hotel business, commercial utilisation, and eco-tourism purposes.” Her government in 2019, tweaked the existing laws allowing the tea garden owners who had taken the land on lease from the government to cultivate tea and allowed them to use 15 per cent of the land for tourism and related activities. BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari at a rally at Kalchini recently said that it was an extremely dangerous proposition as it would threaten protection of traditional land rights of the Gorkhas, Adivasis, Rajbangshis and other communities who are the indigenous people of our Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Dooars.
The Chief Minister, on Tuesday, said that some people were spreading rumours and trying to misguide the tea garden workers.
She said: “There are no freehold rights in the case of tea gardens. The laws related to tea gardens remain unchanged. Leasehold rights were given up to 15 acre. The lands where tea is not cultivated and lying vacant, only there, tea tourism can be developed. SoP is being developed.”