Anit Thapa, the president of Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) and chief executive of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), urged residents of tea gardens to “tear” notices issued by tea management that prohibit building houses.

Thapa’s statement has sent ripples in the tea industry.

The BGPM leader during his rural poll campaign in Darjeeling said: “I am being told that the management is issuing notices, in this Singtom tea garden, too, when our people construct houses. If a notice is issued to anyone, just tear it right away."

"I will take responsibility for this act,” Thapa added.

Thapa argued that when tea garden lessees were constructing “five-star properties” tea garden residents should not be denied a house.

The tea tourism and allied business policy, 2019, which allows tea managements to use “unutilised and fallow land” up to 15 per cent of the area not exceeding 150 acres.

The 86 tea gardens of Darjeeling tea industry employ around 55,000 permanent workers. Every worker is entitled to quarters in the garden.

However, apart from the workers, many residents who no longer work in the tea gardens have also constructed houses on the land. “Such houses come up when gardens get closed for a prolonged period or when there is a change in the management within the company. There is constant disagreement on this issue between the management and residents. However, the management has, in recent years, been trying to regulate the construction of houses by non-workers on tea garden land,” said a planter.

Under this context, many planters believe that Thapa’s statement could have serious repercussions.

“Thapa holds a government position and his statement could set a wrong precedent that is legally bad too,” said a planter.

Each tea garden plot of land is leased out by the state government for a period of thirty years to planters to grow tea bushes.

Almost all parties in the hills are demanding land rights for tea garden residents so that the workers who have since generations worked in the gardens can own land.

Some months back, the state government had distributed land documents to some residents of a closed tea garden in Darjeeling.

However, a planter criticised that move by the state government, calling it legally wrong. "We are hopeful that the state government is now aware that its move was wrong,” he said.