BJP MP Raju Bista of Darjeeling in Parliament on Tuesday raised the demand to develop a national legislation for granting land rights to tea and cinchona plantation workers.

The demand for workers’ land rights is a key issue of both factions of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, now allies of Trinamul. Though Bista has been talking about land rights, the issue is not stated in the BJP manifesto unlike that of the Binay Tamang camp of the Morcha.

“Yesterday (Tuesday), under Rule 377 of the Parliament, which permits us to raise the matters of urgent public importance, I raised the issue of developing a national legislation for granting Parja Patta land rights to tea and cinchona garden workers,” Bista said in a written statement.

The Darjeeling legislator seems to be looking at a provision similar to the one prescribed in The Schedule Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forests Rights) Act, 2006.

“It has become apparent to me that the only way to ensure justice for them is through the intervention of the Union Govt. Just as how the Union Govt has enacted the Forest Rights Act (2006) to provide land rights to the forest dwellers, I believe the workers from our region will get justice with the Union Govt enacting a law which will guarantee Parja Patta rights for our tea and cinchona garden workers (sic),” Bista’s statement reads.

The state government can grant land rights to tea gardens and cinchona plantations. Bista’s decision to seek central intervention could put the Trinamul and its hill allies in a spot, observers feel.

Over 3 lakh people work in the tea gardens of north Bengal and can influence some 15 of 54 Assembly seats in north Bengal.

Even in Darjeeling hills land rights is a major issue as more than 70 per cent of the hill population do not have it.

The Binay Tamang camp of the Morcha had made land rights a major poll issue in the last Lok Sabha polls and Darjeeling Assembly bypolls, both in 2019.

The first part of the Lok Sabha budget session will end on February 13 but the second part of the session will start from March 8 and is likely to carry on till April 8. Bengal is likely to go for elections from April as the tenure of the present state government ends in May.