Stop evicting tribal people; evict encroachers in tribal lands: BJSM

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOKRAJHAR: The Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha (BJSM) and some conscious citizens of the tribal civil society on Wednesday strongly condemned the recent 'inhuman, arbitrary and selective' eviction of Boro tribal residents at Nalpara of Gorchuk-Lokhra area of Kamrup (metro) district and urged Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to stop the eviction of 45 tribal families immediately and restore the homes of tribal people in the land they lived. They demanded that instead of carrying out 'atrocities' on indigenous tribal people, the government should carry out massive eviction drive against non-tribal encroachers in protected tribal lands as per order issued by the Gauhati High Court.

They submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner on Wednesday and said that Bodos were the earliest and aboriginal residents of Brahmaputra valley and they had the right to live anywhere -plain land, river and forest or mountains - in Assam. They said the present advanced non-tribal communities were migrants from other parts of India or abroad and intruders in tribal land of Assam.

The memorandum, signed by the president of BJSM, Janaklal Basumatary, working president DD Narazary, general secretary Jayanta Boro and former Lok Sabha MP SK Bwiswmuthiary, stated that the Government of Assam had failed to protect the tribal protected land from the illegal encroachers of advanced non-tribal people. They said the encroachers were liable to be evicted forthwith as per provision of Chapter-X of the Assam Land and Land Revenue Regulation Act, 1886 as amended in 1947. The Gauhati High Court has also issued order to the Deputy Commissioners of Assam and Principal Secretary of BTC in the PIL case no. 78/2012 dated December 9, 2019 to evict all the identified encroachers in tribal belts and blocks and to clear the encroachment of 4 lakh bighas of land in tribal belts and blocks of Assam. But the Government of Assam has failed to comply with this court order which clearly shows the anti-tribal stand of the present government, said the BJSM leaders. They also said it was the constitutional duty of the government to protect the tribal land and tribal means of livelihood as envisaged in the Constitution of India.

The BJSM leaders reiterated in the memorandum that the entire Kamrup (metro) in South Kamrup and North Kamrup was under tribal belts and blocks and the Bodo tribes have been living there since time immemorial. The recent eviction drive of Bodo tribes selectively in Nalpara village in Gorchuk tribal area of Guwahati city was illegal and inhuman. The leaders of BJSM urged the Chief Minister of Assam to comply with the High Court order to evict all the illegal encroachers in tribal belts and blocks forthwith and evict all the encroachers of forest land, VGR and PGR land except tribals as per Supreme Court order in 2011 and to settle the evicted landless tribal people for the sake of social justice. The BJSM also urged the Government of Assam to withdraw all the orders and notifications issued against the law of tribal belts and blocks.

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