Bengal plans 15% tea garden land for alternative use

Kolkata, June 29: Keeping in mind the plight of workers of closed tea gardens, West Bengal is planning to offer 15 % of tea estate land for alternate use, state finance minister Amit Mitra told the assembly on Wednesday.

Replying to a question, Mitra said the alternate use of land for cultivation will help workers and the same was discussed at the Alipurduar administrative meeting. Mitra was replying to opposition allegations of contradictory statements by chief minister Mamata Banerjee in north Bengal and by the state labour minister Malay Ghatak on Tuesday on closed tea gardens. Mitra said the government was looking to take over six tea gardens — Red Bank, Surendra Nagar, Dharanipur, Dekhlapara, Bandapani, Madhu and Rahimabad.

It may adopt similar approach as it had done in the past for the five abandoned tea gardens in Darjeeling and Dooars, the minister said. The state government had auctioned these gardens after takeover through bidding. Criticising the Centre’s role on Duncan’s closed seven tea gardens, he said there is no progress even after three months of takeover.

Expression of interest was issued but there is still no progress and workers are in problem. The state has, however, taken several measures for their sustainability. Mitra said state government offered pension to 3,185 workers while another 1,000 got benefit through social schemes and ICDS. PTI