The organisation’s demands come months after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had promised to give tea garden workers Rs 1.20 lakh for building houses instead of enrolling them under the Chaa Sundari housing scheme.

Banerjee had made the statement during her tour to eight north Bengal districts in December last year.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the organisation stated that tea garden workers, tribals and Gorkhas have been an integral part of West Bengal’s tea gardens for over 160 years.  “Therefore, they are entitled to possess homestead land rights, including Records of Right (RoR) Khatiyan or raiyat, and not a mere 5 decimal patta,” the statement added.

It alleged that the proposal of giving ‘5 decimal land’ to tea garden workers did not leave any “alternative livelihood options for the labour class, pushing them to migrate to other places”.

The release stated that the organisation “strongly” opposes the proposal and demanded its “immediate withdrawal”.

It also sought “clear government notifications accompanied by a budget provision of Rs 1,20,000 per tea-growing area family towards housing”

Addressing a press conference at Calcutta Press Club on Wednesday, the organisation’s president Christian Kharia said, “We want to question why the government grants raiyat to leaseholders/business classes while neglecting the adivasis, Gorkhas and other communities who have been the original inhabitants of the tea gardens since the 1850s. As the first settlers of the land, the adivasis, Gorkhas and other communities deserve complete ownership of the homestead possessed land rights.”

(Taniya Acherjee is an intern at the Kolkata office of The Indian Express)