Former Manjolai tea estate workers’ plea for house, 2 acres of cultivable land

Residents of Maanjolai at the Collectorate in Tirunelveli on Monday.

| Photo Credit: A. SHAIKMOHIDEEN

Workers of the erstwhile Manjolai tea estate have appealed to the Tamil Nadu Government to allow them to live in the place or give them a house and two acres of cultivable land to ensure their livelihood.The workers from the former private tea estates at Manjolai, Naalumukku and Ooththu submitted a petition to Collector Anand Mohan at the weekly grievances redressal meeting held here on Monday.They said their families had worked in the tea estates for five generations and had to leave their place of birth after the tea manufacturing unit wound up its operations on June 14, 2024 following the end of the lease period. Even as their Aadhar card and Electors’ Photo Identity Card had been issued based on the address in the three estates, they had to leave the place and go to the plains after the unit’s operations came to a grinding halt.The promise of compensation ranging from ₹1.30 lakh to ₹3.30 lakh to the workers was not fulfilled and, hence, a case was filed in the Tirunelveli District Labour Court. Meanwhile, the workers were pressured to leave their houses, which was also challenged in the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court and then in the Supreme Court.Against this backdrop, the Tamil Nadu Government should explore the possibilities of re-opening the tea gardens through TANTEA, the State Government’s tea manufacturing unit, so that the workers of could be rehired as plantation workers, they said.“If the scenic region is converted into tourist spots, we demand that our livelihood be guaranteed in the Western Ghats itself as the Tamil Nadu Government is planning to create tourism infrastructure in the places where we lived. If we are made stakeholders in the tourism project, our livelihood will be guaranteed. If the government is still keen on evicting us from our birth places, we should be given houses in the ‘Samaththuvapuram’ to be created exclusively for Maanjolai tea estate workers. Moreover, each of us should be given ₹25 lakh as compensation. Each family should be given two acres of cultivable land and identity card to visit our places of worship and the graves of our ancestors in Maanjolai, Ooththu and Naalumukku twice a year,” they added.The petitioners, as part of the ex-gratia component, also sought a share in the ₹4,655 crore tax arrears to be paid by the tea estate manufacturing unit. Published - June 08, 2026 06:19 pm IST