Anit Thapa, the president of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) and the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), on Monday requested the district administration not to conduct ground-level survey of tea garden land for the sake of peace.

Many in the hills are reluctant to accept 5 decimals of land that the state government has recently decided to provide the tea garden workers of north Bengal.

With tempers running high, Thapa on Monday sought to pour oil on troubled waters. “I request the district administration not to visit the tea gardens to conduct a land survey. The administration may instead keep forms at the land reform offices. Those willing to accept 5 decimals can go to the office and fill up the forms,” said Thapa.

“Let this acrimony which has started in the hills because of land pattas end here,” Thapa appealed.

On August 1, the state government issued a notification to distribute land up to 5 decimals to workers and other settlers in tea estates of north Bengal.

However, the move has met with opposition. Tea management is against distribution of land rights to the workers. Opposition parties are also against it, saying that many tea garden workers have more than 5 decimals of land in their possession and that the entire land should be given to workers, instead of a 5-decimal cap. Many leaders are alleging the state government might distribute plots to private players after recovering land in excess of 5 decimals from settlers.

Many have opposed the use of the word “landless” in the notification and argued that settlers have for generations possessed land but only lacked documents.

There are reports from various gardens that workers are stopping land reforms officers from surveying their tea gardens. Reports of heated exchanges between BGPM leaders and residents on land distribution during the leaders’ visits to tea gardens have also come.

Thapa asked his party leaders not to speak on the issue in panel discussions or to the media.