Overview
- The November 2025 amendment to the Assam Fixation of Ceiling on Land Holdings removes labour lines from ancillary estate land to enable worker ownership, with the state citing protections for 3.33 lakh families across 825 estates.
- Each eligible worker is set to receive up to one bigha with a 20-year bar on sale, after which transfers are limited to members of the tea garden community.
- The chief minister warned estates that resist or go to court over land transfers that government incentives will be withdrawn.
- Planters’ bodies, including the CCPA, contest the move, arguing labour quarters are statutory facilities under plantation laws and warning of risks to the sector’s viability.
- Alongside land allotment, the government has created a 3% reservation in state jobs for tea youths and begun a wage revision process, with current daily wages at Rs 228 in Barak Valley and Rs 250 in Brahmaputra Valley.