Focus again on tea garden land sale, govt seeks legal opinion

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 21

The controversial issue of allowing sale of land under tea garden has once again come alive with the Jai Ram government seeking legal opinion on whether the land which comes under Land Ceiling Act can be sold for use by the Defence Ministry.

It is reliably learnt that the government has sought the opinion of the Advocate General following difference of opinion given by the Law Department. While during the previous Congress regime, the Law Department had said that land under tea could not be sold, now surprisingly the same department has given its consent to a pending proposal from the Defence Ministry to set up a cantonment near Palampur over 700 bighas of land.

“Though the issue is yet to be brought to my knowledge I am of the opinion that if an exception is made in one case, the others too will seek relaxation, which we will not be able to deny,” said Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur who also holds the revenue portfolio.

Interestingly, the previous Virbhadra- led Congress regime had also tried its level best to oblige a section of the influential tea garden owners but with there being strict legal bindings, the matter was dropped close to the 2017 elections.

Now the BJP regime is confronted with the same issue of whether to allow sale of land under tea gardens or not. It was under Section 5 of the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1972 that exemption had been granted to both tea estates, state and Central government, reregistered Cooperative Farming Societies and HP Agriculture University to retain more than 150 bighas of land.

It was as per the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling of Land Holdings (Amendment) Act of 1999 that complete ban was imposed on the sale of land under tea cultivation and gave the government power to acquire it if put to any other use. Tea cultivation is primarily confined to Kangra district and very small area of Jogindernagar contiguous to Palampur, which has some of the biggest tea estates.

An attempt had been made during the previous BJP regime in 2011 and by the Congress Government in 2015 and later in 2016 to find a way out by which sale of land under tea could be made permissible. The issue of formulating a policy which could make sale of land under tea gardens permissible with government permission had been placed before the previous Virbhadra Cabinet twice but withdrawn as there was no consensus.

An attempt was also made to allow use of tea garden for tourism promotion by allowing construction of hotels on tea estate land, which failed to take off following severe criticism. Despite best efforts of the government to increase area under tea, presently only 1,800 bighas is under tea cultivation and the production stands at a mere 800 quintal.

With area under tea shrinking and problems of manpower and very old plantations plaguing the tea gardens, Kangra Small Tea Planters Association had moved the High Court against the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling of Land Holdings (Amendment) Act of 1999, which bars sale of land under tea. The court in its order on July 19, 2013 had upheld the amendments made 1999, thus upholding the ban on its use for any other purpose.