Tea garden workers to get land for housing: CM

Around 8,000 tea garden workers of Jalpaiguri will get plots of land for making houses. This was announced by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday. “The state government has around 500 acres of land around the tea gardens here and we have decided to distribute plots of lands for making houses among 8,000 tea garden workers. They will get pattas of the land between two to four months,” Ms Banerjee added. She was addressing a rally at Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri on the third and concluding day of her North Bengal visit. Political observers feel that the announcement of distribution of pattas of land among tea garden workers, majority of whom are tribals, was an attempt to placate the tribals of the plains. “The adivasis of Terai and Dooars had been unhappy with the Mamata Banerjee government for the largesse it had showered on the Gorkhas of Darjeeling hills. By taking a decision to allot land to tea garden workers, Didi has clearly tried to do a balancing act,” they claim. Ms Banerjee went a step further and said that she would also try to provide the tea garden workers funds for construction of homes from various schemes like Gitanjali, Indira Awas and Adhikar. Ms Banerjee also announced a string of development projects for the district. She laid emphasis on promotion of tourism. “My government is giving special importance to promotion of tourism. For this purpose, we are setting up a mega tourism circuit at the cost of '46 crore. We will also set up an eco-tourism centre at the cost of '7 crore,” she said. Ms Banerjee also announced a project to develop tea tourism in and around tea gardens of Jalpaiguri at a cost of '72 crore. She claimed that if tourism infrastructure was developed properly then as many tourists would visit Terai and Dooars as go to Darjeeling. She again emphasised the need for cordial relationship between the residents of the plains and the hills.