Lohagar Tea Garden workers launch protest

Darjeeling: Workers and residents of Lohagar Tea Estate in the Mirik Sub-Division of Darjeeling have launched an agitation protesting against the government’s move to reclaim land, which they claim has been cultivated by them for generations. Instead they have urged the state government to issue Pattas (land documents) for the land.

“Some police personnel had arrived here to put up ‘Government Land’ signs a week ago. Local residents did not allow them. We heard that they would come on Thursday again to put up the boards, so we have launched a dharna. This will continue,” stated Prem Prakash Rai, a local resident, while talking to Millennium Post.

Rai claimed that there is around 41 hectares of land on the banks of the Mechi River on the India-Nepal border in the Mirik Sub-Division being cultivated by around 100 worker families of Lohagar.

“Since 1967 we have been in possession of nearly 2 acres of this land, which have been cultivated for generations. Earlier, the Management of the tea garden had also asked us to vacate. Later we managed to get ‘kaccha Pattas’. We urge the government to issue us Pattas. The Chief Minister has assured that Pattas will be handed out for all land in the possession of tea garden workers including homestead land and agricultural land.”

A rally was taken out with this demand in Lohagar with posters declaring that the workers would not allow the land to be taken away. “The amount we get from the garden as wages is not sufficient. We have been growing millets, vegetables in this land for ages. With this we sustain our families. For the past two years owing to frequent raids by elephants and wild boars we have cut down on cultivation. We would request the Government to give us Pattas for the land,” stated Sabina Munda. The district administration could not be contacted for comments.