Giri Bandhu Tea Estate Pvt. Ltd claimed that it has taken exemptions to the limit as per the prevailing law for tea farming in the family’s private land.

Saying that Giri Bandhu is their private property, Giri Bandhu Tea Estate by organizing a press conference in Jhapa on Wednesday claimed that it has taken exemptions to the limit as per the prevailing law for tea farming.

Giri Bandhu Tea Estate Chairman Chatra Giri objected to the misinformation being spread on social media like the government had given the land to Giri Bandhu for free.

Giri claimed that Giri Bandhu had expanded the tea cultivation before the implementation of the Land Act in 2021.

Though the government had allowed only to keep 500 bigha land, he said that Giri Bandhu now has only 390 bigha land.

He said that the settlement in the place, where the company was established in 1963, has been expanded and developed as the Birtamode market at present. Hence, the fertility of the land decreased.

Giri said that the tea production decreased by 70 percent which had its direct impact on the livelihood of the tea workers.

As the locals started mounting pressure on us to remove the tea farm from the area, he clarified that bowing to the pressure they filed an application to swap Giri Bandhu’s land with plots elsewhere in the province.