STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The around 500-year-old Sri Sri Narayandas Thakur Ata Xatra is under an extinction threat due to large-scale land encroachment.
Sri Sri Narayandas Thakur Ata, a disciple of Srimanta Sankardev, established this xatra at Rongapani under the Abhayapuri North LAC in the Bongaigaon district. Sri Sri Narayandas Thakur Ata was one of the four acharyas deputed by Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev. He was a bosom friend of Mahapurush Madhabdev. The village had a thick indigenous population. The indigenous people started to desert the village after facing the ire of the Burmese attack (Manor akromon). The village is left with only 70 indigenous families now. The rest of the families of the village belong to a particular faith. The 70 families of the village have kept the Akshay Bonti (ever-lit flame) of the xatra burning.
The successive state governments in the past did precious little to evict the encroachers of the lands of this xatra. The xatra committee now requests the present government to free the xatra land from encroachers.
Talking to The Sentinel, Sri Sri Narayandas Thakur Ata Xatra Management Committee president Dhirendra Deva Adhikari said, "This xatra had 58 bighas of land, and 26 bighas are under encroachment. The encroachers did move the court that gave its verdict against them. Despite that, the district administration has not evicted the encroachers from the lands of this xatra.
"We suffer a lot to keep the Akshay Bonti of this xatra burning. We request the present government at Dispur to free the encroached lands of this xatra.
"We also met the Xatra Commission and submitted all land and other documents of this xatra. Xatra Commission members assured us that they would visit our xatra. We expect the government to be benevolent to this xatra."
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