CAA will aggravate land crisis for indigenous people: Hari Shankar Brahma

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Hari Shankar Brahma has said that enforcement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) would aggravate the present land crisis for the indigenous people in Assam.

"There are lakhs of landless indigenous people in the State. Land has already become scarce for the indigenous people. Under such circumstances, how could one think of accommodating more people from the country like Bangladesh? The State has already taken a huge burden of people from the neighbouring country. We can no longer afford to take more burden now," Brahma told The Sentinel on Monday.

Brahma who headed the Committee for Protection of Land Rights of Indigenous People of Assam constituted by the Assam Government, said the number such as only five lakh Hindu Bangladeshis would get citizenship in Assam due to enforcement of the CAA, is misleading.

The Brahma Committee in its report submitted to the State Government in 2018, had predicted that the indigenous people of the State would become a landless class of people and foreigners in their own homeland in the near future.

According to the report, encroachment of land by immigrant Muslims from Bangladesh is the most serious threat to the land rights and identity of the indigenous population of Assam. It says that owing to lack of measures to make agriculture profitable, local farmers are selling off land to rich "land-hungry" non-indigenous traders who use them for non-agricultural purposes.

"Once citizenship is accorded to the Hindu Bangladeshis, the Government will have to provide them land and other resources to lead a dignified life. Such development will aggravate the present land crisis for the indigenous people," Brahma said.

He added that since majority of the people of the State are opposing the CAA, the Government should not have forcefully imposed the legislation. "It is unfair to impose an Act on the people against their wishes. Assam should have been kept out of the purview of the CAA," Brahma pointed out.

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