United Tribal Organization of Assam Hails Gauhati High Court’s Decision Against Illegal Encroachers in South Kamrup

KOKRAJHAR: The United Tribal Organization of Assam (UTOA), a common platform for scheduled tribes of both plains and hills and a member organization of LTR platform Asia, welcomed the strong action of the government of Assam against the illegal encroachers in the South Kamrup tribal belt, as per the order of the Gauhati High Court.

The president of the UTOA Markush Basumatary said the UTOA was actively involved in a legal battle to evict the illegal encroachers from the tribal belts and blocks of Assam in conjunction with Prodyut Kr. Bora, as part of PIL No. 78/2012 in the Guwahati High Court. He said, “We would like to bring to your attention that if UTOA had not intervened through interlocutory application no. 273 of 2015, four districts of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) would have been excluded from this PIL. This is because, in 2012, Prodyut Kr. Bora filed the aforementioned PIL case in the Guwahati High Court, initially excluding BTC. On our appeal, the High Court issued orders on two occasions in 2019 and in 2023 to evict the illegal encroachers, including those in BTC and various districts of Assam.” However, it is very unfortunate that, despite the issuance of names and notifications of illegal encroachers in 19 tribal belts and blocks, the governments of BTC and Assam have not followed the eviction orders of the Guwahati High Court.

“We have observed that the Government of Assam is implementing the order of the Guwahati High Court only in the South Kamrup tribal belt. However, we are concerned about the lack of action in other tribal belts and blocks,” Basumatary said, adding that the eviction of illegal settlers should be carried out in all tribal belts and blocks before it is too late. The UTOA demanded that the government of Assam and the BTC should take immediate steps to evict all illegal encroachers from the tribal belts and blocks across Assam and BTC in accordance with the chapter- X of the Assam land & Revenue Regulation Act, 1886.

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