The Joint Forum, an umbrella body of more than 20 tea unions, except that of the Trinamul Congress, in north Bengal has demanded that the state government provide rights of the entire land that each tea garden dweller possesses, and not just 5 decimals.

Members of the forum plastered posters across Darjeeling hills and submitted a memorandum to the district magistrate about their demand.

Suraj Subba, the president of the trade union of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, said: “The state government should provide land rights of the entire area the tea garden workers possess and not just 5 decimal of land to each. For ages, our people in the garden have cultivated cardamom and orange, and possess land apart from the houses.”

On August 1, the state government issued a notification to grant land rights to all garden workers “retiring and/or retired landless labourers and long term occupiers of tea gardens".

Each household is to be granted 5 decimals of land. These 5 decimals cannot be sold but will be inheritable.

Apart from land size, the Opposition parties have also raked up a touchy issue related to land ownership.

"The government has stated that they are providing land rights to landless people. Our people in the tea garden who have been residing for generations are not landless. They possess land but they do not have documents. Our people are only asking for documents of their land,” Subba said, adding that the wording in the notification should also be changed.

Members of the Joint Forum argued that the Britishers came “and set up tea gardens in our land". “They set up tea gardens in around 1850s before Independence on our land. We have objections to our tea garden people being termed landless,” said Subba.

The Joint Forum leaders also seem rattled by the rally brought out by the rivals Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) to celebrate the government’s decision on Sunday. “They are playing with the future of the tea garden people,” said S.K. Lama, trade union leader of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF).

Land rights are an important demand of the more than 3 lakh tea garden workers in north Bengal who have been working in the gardens for generations.

Sources said that the state government has fast-tracked the process.

Smaraki Mahapatra, the land reforms commissioner will reach Jalpaiguri on August 10.

"To monitor the entire process, Smaraki Mahapatra, the land reforms commissioner of the state, will reach Jalpaiguri on August 10. She will also attend a meeting with officials of different departments and representatives of tea planters’ associations on the issue of granting land rights to those who live on the tea estates of the region,” said a source.

Sources added that the land acquisition wing of the district land and land reforms department has started conducting surveys in tea gardens.

As part of the plan, it has been decided that initially retired tea garden workers and workers who are set to retire soon would be the first ones to get the land rights, said a source.

This is because normally once a worker retires, he or she is supposed to vacate the worker’s quarters provided by the tea company of the garden concerned.

"Unless there is a second member in the family who serves in the garden, the quarters have to be vacated and the family has to leave their home of many years. That is why, unlike other workers, a retired tea garden worker or a worker who will retire soon needs the land rights more so that he or she can build a house on such land,” the source added.

The state labour department has also been assigned with the task to prepare the list of such workers from each garden.

In the tea industry, the retirement age of a worker is 58 years.