Acquire Manjolai tea estate or rehabilitate workers, Madras HC tells Tamil Nadu govt

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Monday observed that the State government’s TANTEA should either take over the Manjolai estate or take proper measures to rehabilitate the estate workers.

Hearing petitioners from Manjolai in Tirunelveli and K Krishnasamy, president of Puthiya Tamilagam, a division bench comprising Justice R Suresh Kumar and Justice G Arul Murugan said all 536 workers in the Manjolai estate are Indian citizens and it is important to protect their livelihood. Manjolai is home to several generations of workers and relocation of these workers should be dealt with from a humanitarian perspective, it said.

The counsel on behalf of Krishnasamy said the estate workers are traditional dwellers and sought the government to provide four hectares of land to each worker under the Tribal Protection Act.

The government counsel stated that the issue is between a private company and its workers. The area was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2018. The government would consider whether to take up the estate or rehabilitate the workers, the counsel said and sought time to file a report in this regard.

Further, the bench said no worker should be forced to vacate and adjourned the case to July 22. It also directed Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation (BBTC), which has leased the estate, not to force VRS on workers and hand over 75 per cent of the compensation to the office of Assistant Commissioner, Labour Welfare, Nagercoil.