The state public works department (PWD) has written to the Jalpaiguri district magistrate that it had not given any land at the district’s Chamurchi More in Banarhat to John Barla, the BJP MP of Alipurduar who was recently made the Union minister of state for minority affairs.

Barla is developing a multi-storeyed commercial complex on a plot at Chamurchi More that the PWD also confirmed belongs to it.

The letter from the department comes shortly after the tea company that owns the Lakhipara tea estate, also near Banarhat, told the administration that it did not grant permission to Barla to build a house on its garden. The first-time MP completed building a house on the garden, a plot taken on lease from the state government, after winning the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The clarifications from the PWD and the tea company come in the wake of allegations from district Trinamul leaders that the BJP minister had built properties on government land. Acting on them, district magistrate Moumita Godara Basu had first sought a report on the status of the plots specified by Trinamul. When a report by the district land reforms department pointed to the tea garden and PWD, she wrote to both, asking if they had granted permission to the MP for private constructions.

“As both the state PWD and the tea company replied to the DM’s letter in the negative, a new letter has been sent to both on Tuesday, asking them to take possession of their respective plots,” said an official.

The district administration, sources said, also shared these details with Nabanna and state land and land reforms department. “No specific instruction has reached us on what to do next. So, authorities concerned (PWD and the tea company) have been asked (at our level) to recover their plots,” the official added.

District Trinamul leaders said they briefed their state leadership on the issue. “Our allegation has been proved correct. The rest is up to the administration and the state government,” said district Trinamul president K.K. Kalyani.

“We know there are encroachments on many government plots in Banarhat. The administration never made any move to clear them. Trinamul is acting against Barla with vindictiveness,” said BJP’s Jalpaiguri district chief Bapi Goswami, but ducked the allegation of the MP’s illegal misuse of government land.