A written submission purportedly made by the apex body of planters in India to the Bengal government that “migrants” from Nepal will corner tea garden land in the Darjeeling hills if workers are granted rights to plots up to five decimals is threatening to brew a major storm in the region.

Arijit Raha, the secretary general of the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA), purportedly wrote a letter to the secretary of the land reforms department on March 14, 2023, to express its view on the state government’s decision to grant up to five decimals of plots to tea garden workers in north Bengal.

The letter says Bengal’s chief secretary asked the planters to submit their views on the land distribution during a meeting held in Siliguri on February 22.

While the planters have expressed their reservations about the distribution of pattas, their views on the Darjeeling hills are brewing a storm.

Raha’s letter reads: “Darjeeling tea industry is situated next to the porous Indo-Nepal boundary and migrants from across the border are settling within tea gardens. “Pattas”, if given to workers, will ultimately be cornered by migrants, creating islands of illegal activities with no control of the management.”

Even though the letter was written in March, the matter has come to the public domain only recently after the government issued a notification on August 1 to grant land rights to tea garden workers.

Protests against the letter’s content have already been registered.

Activist Saakal Dewan was the first to object to the planters’ reference to the ‘migrants” from Nepal in Darjeeling on August 22.

Kurseong BJP MLA B.P. Sharma (Bajgain) raised the issue in the Bengal Assembly on August 24.

“Tea garden workers in the Darjeeling hills are not immigrants.... The government must ask them (CCPA) to list the immigrants in their gardens along with their details,” said Bajgain.

The MLA said “people of the Darjeeling hills are seeking an answer politically (meaning Gorkhaland)” because of such contention as made by the CCPA.

The proponents of Gorkhaland maintain that one of the reasons for the demand for statehood is to distinguish citizens of Nepal from Nepali-speaking Indians.

Apart from Bajgain, Alok Kant Mani Thulung, the president of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha’s Darjeeling subdivision committee, also raked up the issue on Sunday.

“This is a letter that I came across only yesterday (Saturday). The content of the letter is condemnable. Those who are opposing the distribution of pattas are also working in favour of the tea management,” alleged Thulung.

The Telegraph had got in touch with Raha’s office in Calcutta on August 25 soon after the issue had been raised in the Assembly.

The office directed the newspaper to email the queries.

However, the CCPA has not yet replied to the email or issued any official statement.