Assam Govt Warns Tea Estate Owners Over Worker Land Rights

The Assam government has warned tea garden owners that incentives worth Rs 150 crore could be withdrawn if they do not cooperate with granting land rights to their workers.

The announcement comes after the passage of the Assam Fixation of Ceiling on Land Holding (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which aims to provide tea garden workers with ownership rights (pattas) for the land they occupy in labour lines. Under the law, the land cannot be sold for 20 years and, thereafter, only to another tea garden worker family.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “We have seen non-cooperation from some tea estate owners. When the British brought tea workers to Assam, they made them work as slaves. Over time, laws gave them humanity but not dignity. Today, that mistake is being rectified.”

The legislation is expected to benefit over 3.3 lakh tea worker families across 825 tea estates, covering a total of 2,18,553 bigha of land. Analysts note that this move could have a significant political impact ahead of Assam’s assembly polls, given the tea garden worker community’s influence as a vote bank.

However, the move has faced pushback from the Consultative Committee of Planters’ Associations (CCPA), which has set conditions for distributing tea estate land.

The body has raised concerns that existing plantation labour laws do not allow garden land to be converted into transferable ownership. They argue that labour quarters and line areas are statutory facilities under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, and cannot be handed over as pattas.

The government, however, insists the law is a step toward correcting historical injustices faced by tea garden workers and ensuring them long-overdue dignity and ownership.

Also Read: Assam Govt Delivers 1.45 Lakh Jobs; CM Sarma Announces 3% Quota for Tea Community