Assam Will Grant Land Titles to 350,000 Tea Garden Workers, and Build Them Houses
Minister Atul Bora told the Assembly's budget session on July 14 that the land patta drive now targets 350,000 workers on Assam's tea estates, with government-funded houses added on top.
Assam will grant land titles to 350,000 tea garden workers and build them government-funded houses, Minister Atul Bora told the Assembly's budget session July 14.
The commitment scales up a rollout this certifying office has tracked since March, when the first phase handed pattas, legal title to the housing-line plots, to 28,241 families statewide, starting in the Sonitpur, Golaghat, and Karbi Anglong districts.
Bora, the state's Panchayat and Rural Development minister, said the pattas will now go to 3.5 lakh (350,000) workers and that eligible families will also get houses, India Today NE and Northeast Now reported. "We have decided to provide them with PMAY houses as well," Bora told ANI the same day, naming the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin, the federal rural-housing scheme, as the program. Neither India Today NE nor Northeast Now reported a completion date for the expanded drive.
The underlying law, the Assam Fixation of Ceiling on Land Holding (Amendment) Act, 2025, passed the Assembly on Nov. 28, 2025, the Assam Tribune reported. The government put the count at roughly 333,000 workers when the bill passed, Social News XYZ reported; Bora's higher July 14 figure revises that scope upward. Workers receive title on payment of Rs 500 (about $6) per bigha, India Today NE reported from a Feb. 4 Gauhati High Court hearing.
The Indian Tea Association challenged the law in the Gauhati High Court, arguing it would change the structure of tea estates and could hamper production, India Today NE reported. The court declined to grant an interim stay at that Feb. 4 hearing, and the government proceeded with the March rollout while the challenge remains pending.
A worker who gains title holds a patta the law bars from sale or transfer for 20 years, Social News XYZ reported. That is security of tenure on the plot, not yet a deed to cash in. This office notes the title can now go toward a PMAY-funded house instead of a bare deed. What a full 350,000 workers and their gardens make of it is a certificate this office intends to keep checking.
Sources: India Today NE, "Assam government to grant land pattas to 3.5 lakh tea garden workers, build houses for tea community"; Northeast Now, "Assam: Government to grant land pattas to 3.5 lakh tea garden workers and build houses"; ANI, "'Completed 22 lakh PMAY-Gramin houses; target another 2 lakh in 100 days': Assam Minister Atul Bora"; Assam Tribune, "Assam Assembly passes tea garden land patta bill amid sloganeering and sharp debate"; Social News XYZ, "Assam Assembly clears amendment bill to grant land pattas to tea garden workers"; India Today NE, "Gauhati High Court clears Assam's move to grant land rights to tea workers".