Manjolai tea estate workers will be given tenements worth ₹14 lakh free of cost, Tamil Nadu govt. tells Madras High Court

Tamil Nadu government offers free housing to Manjolai tea estate workers facing job loss in Tirunelveli district.

The Manjolai tea estate workers facing job loss in Tirunelveli district will be provided with 309 tenements, worth ₹14 lakh each, in the plains free of cost without even paying the allottee share of ₹3 lakh each, the Tamil Nadu government told the Madras High Court on Wednesday.

Appearing before Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, Advocate-General P.S. Raman said the tea estates had been established on 3,388.78 hectares given on a 99-year lease by the erstwhile Singampatti Zamindar to Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Limited (BBTCL) in 1928.

Subsequently, on March 22, 1937, the Singampatti estate was notified as a forest under Sections 26 and 32 of the then Madras Forest Act, 1882. On August 2, 1962, areas forming part of the estate were notified as the Mundanthurai tiger sanctuary under the then Wild Birds and Animals (Protection) Act, 1912.

“Incidentally, this was the first notified tiger sanctuary in the country,” the A-G said and highlighted that the Wild Life (Protection) Act, in force now, was enacted only in 1972. On December 28, 2007, the government declared the areas which form part of the estate as a core critical tiger habitat by invoking the 1972 law.

Finally, on January 12, 2018, the areas were also notified as reserve forests leading to multiple court cases between the State and BBTCL. Though the company’s lease was to expire only on February 11, 2028, it decided to wind up its operations at Manjolai this year itself and announced a vountary retirement scheme.

Making it clear that the State had decided to convert the tea estates in Manjolai, Kakkaachi, Nalumukku, Oothu, and Kuthiraivetti (collectively known as Manjolai estates) into natural forests, the A-G said it would primarily be the responsibility of BBTCL to provide a proper severance package to the workers as per the labour laws.

Nevertheless, being a welfare State, the government decided to provide 150 Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNHUDB) tenements at Reddiarpatti near Tirunelveli city and 240 tenements at Manimuthar in Ambasamudram taluk under the Kalaignar Kanavu Illam and another urban habitat development scheme.