OUR CORRESPONDENT
KOKRAJHAR: The All-Assam Tribal Students Union (AATSU) has welcomed the action taken by the Government of Assam against the illegal encroachers in the tribal belt and block area of Sonapur and South Kamrup. Extending heartfelt gratitude to the state government of Assam for carrying out an anti-encroachment drive in the tribal lands in Sonapur, the AATSU urges all the political parties and social organizations of Assam not to politicize this sensitive issue. The tribal student body demands follow-up action for eviction in tribal belts and blocks against the illegal settlers of non-protected classes of people as per the order of Gauhati High Court without delay.
In a statement, the president of the AATSU, Hareswar Brahma, and joint secretary Borey Eahea said, “We have 47 tribal belts and blocks, out of which 30 are blocks and 17 are belts. Encroachment is rife in land measuring over five lakh bighas, out of a total land area of 85, 80,342 bighas spread across all the tribal belts and blocks. They said the Gauhati High Court had also earlier issued an eviction order, in a public interest litigation filed by Prodyut Kumar Borah (PIL 78/2012), to the state government and all the DCs to make tribal belts and blocks in the state free from encroachment. “The governments of Assam and BTC have severely been failing to protect the tribal belts and blocks over the decades. Moreover, the state government had totally failed to protect the tribal lands as per land act of tribal people and was reluctant to follow the order of the Gauhati High Court issued in the year 2019 to evict all the non-protected illegal encroachers people from the lands of tribal belts and blocks”, they said adding that the Assam land and Revenue Regulation Act, 1886 was brought by the British rulers to protect the land belonging to tribal people from the illegal encroachers and the then tribal leaders like Bhimbar Deuri, Rupnath Brahma and Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma under the banner of Tribal League (TL) moved the then Chief Minister of Assam Gopinath Bordoloi and brought amendment of Assam Land and Revenue Regulation Act in 1949 to protect the tribal lands. To act according to the order of the Gauhati High Court, the AATSU urges the government of Assam and the BTC to take immediate steps to evict all illegal encroachers from all tribal belts and blocks in Assam. They also said the cabinet decision of the government of Assam taken on July 7, 2021, where the protected non-tribal people are allowed to reside in the tribal belt and block areas should be reviewed and repealed immediately, as this is nothing but a systematic mechanism of land aggression in tribal belts and blocks, which cannot be allowed. They further demanded that the Assam State Capital Region Development Authority (ASCRDA) Act, 2017 should be removed by the Assam government, as this act will ruin the tribal belts and blocks of Assam by implementing various government schemes in the land of tribal indigenous people that will grab the land of protected belts and blocks. Furthermore, they demanded before the government of India to recommend the inclusion of all autonomous councils like Rabha Hasong, Mising, and Tiwa autonomous councils into the six schedules of the Constitution of India.
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