West Bengal Tourism Minister seeks probe into tea garden land sale, usage during TMC regime

Kolkata: West Bengal Tourism Minister Shankar Ghosh alleged on Tuesday that during the tenure of the previous Trinamool Congress government, land belonging to several tea gardens in North Bengal was allegedly transferred and sold illegally and the money raised through this process went into the Trinamool Congress party fund and used for election.

While speaking to mediapersons, Ghosh referred to this as an issue of ‘institutional corruption’ and demanded a thorough probe into the matter.

He stated that a detailed investigation is needed to find out how and under what rules tea garden land was utilized.


The state Tourism Minister said that he would write to the Chief Minister demanding probe into the matter related to the tea garden land transfer, lease, and commercial usage of tea garden land also be brought under the purview of investigation into corruption.

Ghosh added that he would send a formal note in this connection to Justice Biswanath Basu and former IPS officer K. Jayaraman, who are probing all corruption related issues submitted to them.

Commercial Usage of 30% Land

Ghosh connected the issue of allowing 30% tea garden land by the Trinamool govt and claimed that during the previous regime, his party had opposed allowing the commercial and tourism-related use of approximately 30 percent land belonging to state-run tea gardens.

He alleged that rules were misused by Trinamool in the name of commercializing the land and inquiry was needed. The BJP government allowed only 15% for commercial usage.