Assam govt introduces amendment bill to give land rights in tea garden ‘labour lines’

Guwahati, Nov 25 (PTI) The Assam government on Tuesday introduced an amendment bill in the Assembly to remove tea garden ‘labour lines’ from land meant for ancillary plantation activities, enabling the state to distribute such land to tea workers for housing ownership.

Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Keshab Mahanta tabled 'The Assam Fixation of Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Act, 2025' with the Speaker’s permission.

According to the statement of objects and reasons, the amendment has been necessitated to amend the existing Act in view of evolving land-use priorities and to ensure optimal utilisation of surplus land in all tea estates other than that of small tea growers.

The bill proposes to exclude ‘labour lines’ (tea garden labour colonies) from the definition of ancillary purpose.

It will enable the government to identify surplus land for development and re-distributive use, and facilitate integration of tea garden labour housing into mainstream government housing, social welfare and public health programmes.

It pointed that tea garden workers residing in labour lines occupy land without clear legal title or statutory protection, and the amendment will secure their land rights.

“Excluding labour lines from this category will enable the state to identify such lands as surplus, resume them in a transparent manner, and put them to productive use,” the bill said.

The extent of land to be allotted per tea garden worker’s family will be notified by the government periodically.

The definition of ‘family’ will follow the existing Act, while that of tea garden worker will be according to the draft bill.

The bill identifies a tea garden worker as a permanent or temporary worker 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 bill also has new sub-sections to strengthen the mechanism for determining and realising penalties.

"These measures bring transparency, prevent misuse of ancillary classifications and strengthen accountability in the administration of ancillary plantation land," the statement of objects and reasons added.

In the financial memorandum of the bill, it has been stated that the amendment will have monetary implications arising from compensation payable to tea estates for acquisition of the labour line lands.

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.

This monetary obligation will be met from existing budgetary allocations and subsequent development of the acquired land will be dovetailed with ongoing state and central schemes. PTI SSG SSG MNB