Guwahati, Nov 28 (PTI) The Assam Assembly on Friday passed an amendment bill which will enable the government to distribute land in tea estates’ labour lines among the workers for housing ownership, amid noisy scenes created by opposition AIUDF demanding land rights in ‘char’ (riverine) areas inhabited mostly by Bengali-speaking Muslims.
The ruling BJP legislators countered the commotion by raising ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and Chief Minister ‘Himanta Biswa Sarma zindabad’ slogans, as AIUDF MLAs trooped into the well of the House with posters and slogans demanding land ‘patta’ in char areas.
Earlier, taking part in the discussion on ‘The Assam Fixation of Ceiling of Land Holdings (Amendment) Act, 2025’, Sarma claimed that a historic mistake was being corrected by providing land rights to the workers who have been toiling in tea gardens for the last 200 years, uprooted from their native land and brought here by the British.
He said the demand for land rights in char areas will also be looked into by the government and survey of such areas has been started already.
“The contribution of the tea garden workers to Assamese society over the last 200 years is immense and we are acknowledging it through this,” Sarma said.
He maintained that the British had ‘enslaved’ the workers like in Western countries and these ‘shackles’ have been freed by this amendment bill which will provide them right over their land.
Under the proposed Act, ‘labour lines’ (tea garden labour colonies) will be excluded from the definition of ancillary purpose in tea estates in the original law.
It will enable the government to identify surplus land for development and redistributive use, and facilitate integration of tea garden labour housing into mainstream government housing, social welfare and public health programmes.
The extent of land to be allotted per tea garden worker’s family will be notified by the government periodically.
The bill identifies a tea garden worker as a permanent or temporary labourer and descendants of workers residing within the labour lines areas of a tea estate on the date of commencement of the Act, belonging to Tea tribes and Adivasi communities as notified by the government from time to time.
The total number of tea estates in Assam is 825 and the area under labour colonies is around 2,18,553 bighas.
The total amount of compensation to be paid to affected parties tentatively at the rate of Rs 3,000 per bigha will come to around Rs 65.57 crore.
Elaborating various schemes undertaken for tea workers’ welfare, Sarma also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi working as a tea seller in his early years.
“After Modi ji became the prime minister, he asked us to work for the development of the tea tribes,” he added.
Sarma said the government will also launch a scheme to provide monetary support to the tea workers to construct houses in their allotted land.
On the demand for rights on char land raised by the AIUDF, the CM said a survey of those areas was being done and eligible people will be provided rights in due course.
He asserted that evictions will continue to clear all encroached land and urged the AIUDF MLAs to persuade the illegal settlers, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims, to clear out voluntarily.
Members of the ruling as well as opposition benches participated in the discussion, with all supporting providing land rights to the tea workers.
The discussion also witnessed some heated exchanges between the chief minister and Independent legislator Akhil Gogoi as both levelled accusations against each other over their past.
The AIUDF, while supporting the move, created noisy scene as Speaker Biswajit Daimary placed the bill to be passed.
They walked into the well of the Houses, holding posters and raising slogans for ownership rights in char areas. As the bill was passed by a voice vote, the AIUDF legislators staged a walk out. PTI SSG NN
Category: Breaking News
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