Guwahati: The Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA) has urged the Assam government to reconsider its proposal to distribute land pattas to tea garden workers, warning that the move could disrupt plantation management and violate existing laws.
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 Act, 2025 with the Speaker’s permission.
According to the statement of objects and reasons, the amendment is needed to update the existing Act in view of evolving land-use priorities and to ensure optimal utilisation of surplus land in all tea estates other than those of small tea growers.
“Excluding labour lines from this category will enable the state to identify such lands as surplus, resume them transparently, and put them to productive use,” the bill states.
In a letter to the Chief Secretary dated November 24, 2025, the apex body representing tea planters said labour quarters and line areas are part of the statutory facilities mandated under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, and cannot be converted into transferable land ownership.
It cited rules that allow workers’ families to retain quarters only under limited circumstances such as retirement, death or temporary absence.
The CCPA cautioned that transferring ownership to individuals could trigger claims from other employee categories and complicate land-use patterns, especially since many estates also hold mortgaged land against bank loans.
It also highlighted the unique situation in the Barak Valley, where families of former workers already reside on estate land.
“Distribution of patta will confer heritable and transferable rights, by dint of which the sale or purchase of such lands cannot be prevented. This will be detrimental to tea estates, which exist as composite entities. Even if the rights are only ‘heritable’, there is no guarantee that the worker’s next of kin would work on the estate. While the family would occupy patta land within the same grant, there will be scarcity of land for fulfilling the statutory obligation of the management to provide housing for new workers. If such units are rented out or sub-let to outsiders by migrating workers, this will cause an influx of non-working residents into estates, compromising the compact nature of the holding as well as the management’s administrative control,” the association said.
The planters’ body reiterated that if any estate land is acquired, compensation must comply with the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The letter also sought clarity on the recent implementation of labour codes and their implications for welfare responsibilities such as housing and sanitation in tea estates.
The CCPA asked the state to hold further consultations before finalising the policy on land pattas in tea estates. The government maintains that the bill will help identify surplus land for development and redistribution, and integrate tea garden labour housing into mainstream government housing, social welfare and public health programmes.
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