Assam Accelerates Tea Garden Land-Title Drive With 38,000 Forms Distributed
A High Court challenge by estate owners shadows a months-long programme targeting 800-plus estates for land titles to tea worker families.
Overview
- District rollouts reported 37,133 settlement forms handed to workers across 84 estates in Jorhat, with additional batches issued in Darrang and Morigaon.
- Operational steps include four-member committees in each garden to help applications and land surveys that officials say have finished in 103 estates with another 250 starting.
- The effort is enabled by the 2025 amendment to Assam’s land-ceiling law that moves labour-line land to state control to issue pattas to eligible families.
- Officials and the Chief Minister describe coverage spanning 800-plus estates and benefiting several hundred thousand families, with some accounts citing over 3.5 lakh households.
- The programme proceeds under Gauhati High Court review after tea estate owners challenged the law, as the Chief Minister targets partial patta issuance before the 2026 polls and estimates six to seven months for full rollout.