Assam: Xatradhikars Unite to Move Dispur on Freeing Xatra Lands

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: Several xatradhikars of Nagaon and Morigaon district have decided to go in for a concerted effort to save and protect xatra lands from ‘pomuwa’ or immigrant Muslims. Huge tracts of land have been in the possession of these people for decades altogether.

An example of xatra land being encroached by people of a particular community is the Rampur Xatra in the Nagaon district, whose very existence has been threatened.

16 xatradhikars of Nagaon and Morigaon district on Saturday held a meeting at Sri Sri Narowa Kujisatra (Baishnabpur Than) to discuss the issue of land being encroached by such people. It was decided ta the meeting that the xatradhikars would move the government together as a group to free xatra lands from encroachers, and save wetlands in the area.

The xatradhikar of Sri Sri Narowa Kujisatra, Nityananda Dev Goswami, presided over the meeting. Speaking to The Sentinel on Sunday, the xatradhikar said, “The encroachment of xatra land is a majpr concern in the districts of Nagaon and Morigaon. So far, we had moved the government individually, stating our own concerns. But, we have not seen any results. So, we held a meeting yesterday, in which it was decided that we will move unitedly to request Dispur to free the xatra lands from encroachment. In the meeting, we constituted a coordination committee with Indra Mohan Baruah as president and Manik Bora as secretary. This coordination committee will compile data on the lands encroached by people from a certain community. We will then apprise the Assam government about the encroached lands and ask for an eviction drive to be carried out.”

“Most of the xatras in Nagaon and Morigaon have beels (wetlands) and these were used by Mahapurush Srimanta Sankaradev to travel from xatra to xatra by boat during his lifetime, as the wetlands were then connected to each other.  Slowly, people encroached on the wetlands, filled them up and constructed houses. The connection between the beels disappeared. The bio-diversity of the wetlands also suffered as a consequence and the beels have shrunk to a fraction of their original size,” he further stated, saying that the subject assumed grave importance in the meeting yesterday and they will now bring the fact to the notice of the state government.

“Our main concern is that the wetlands should be freed from encroachment and the xatra lands should be evicted and transferred back to us,” he reiterated.

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