BJSM slams CM over remarks on land rights in tribal belts and blocks

KOKRAJHAR: The Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha (BJSM) on Wednesday slammed Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma who announced in a meeting of the Bengali Youth Students’ Federation (BYSF) held at Silapathar in the Dhemaji district on Tuesday, that the Hindu Bengalis were eligible for purchasing land in tribal belts and blocks in Assam and BTC area. The Mancha said the remarks of Chief Minister had hurt the sentiments of tribal people of Assam whose land have already been illegally encroached by non-tribal people and outsiders.

The president of BJSM, Janaklal Basumatary, while reacting sharply, said the land rights of Hindu Bengali, Bengali SC, Gorkhas were not exactly true in the BTC sixth schedule area as well as in Assam. He said that non-tribal people, protected or non-protected, who came after the creation of tribal belts and blocks under Chapter X of the Assam land law do not have land transaction right in notified tribal belts and blocks in Assam as well as in BTC sixth schedule area.

Basumatary said that only those non-tribals who have been residing since before the creation of tribal belts and blocks have the right of land transaction in tribal belts and blocks of Assam as well in BTC sixth schedule area. He said the Assamese Brahmin and Bengali Brahmin do not have the same land right status in Assam as Bengali Brahmins entered Assam after 1951 from East Pakistan or Bangladesh.

“There is no separate Assamese SC and Bengali SC. Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) of Assam do not include the SC or ST of West Bengal. So there cannot be Assamese SC or Bengali SC. Bengali SC cannot claim benefit of SCs in Assam and in BTC,” he said adding that no non-tribal, protected or non-protected, can have land transaction right in BTC sixth schedule area if they have come after the date of notification of sixth schedule area in 2003. But the non-tribals, protected or non-protected, who have been living permanently before 2003 are eligible for living in tribal belts and blocks and have land transaction rights in BTC. He also said the encroachers in tribal belts and blocks before 2003 also do not have land rights in BTC and the BTC authority can evict all such encroachers.

He also said the Assam Government’s notification of Gorkhas as protected class in BTC sixth schedule is also illegal and cannot be implemented. He further said that land was the transferred subject of BTC sixth schedule administration and thus the Assam Government cannot interfere in BTC land administration.

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