How do forest encroachers get power connections?

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The APDCL (Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd) is indirectly abetting encroachment of forest lands, thereby making the Forest department face hurdles during eviction drives.

According to government rules, encroachers of Forest land are not supposed to get any government facilities, but the APDCL continues to give such people power connections for reasons best known to it. This is a common practice among encroachers of Forest land to show electricity bills issued by the government to prove drives being carried out to evict them as wrongful moves.

There are 19 reserve forests and proposed reserved forests in and around Guwahati. Recently, the Forest department has sent a letter to the APDCL to disconnect power connections given to families encroaching upon Forest lands. The APDCL is yet to send its action taken report to the Forest department.

According to Forest department's own assessment, power connections given to around 1,500 families residing on Forest land in Guwahati need to be disconnected. A rough estimate says that around 6,000 families have encroached upon Forest land in Guwahati and erected houses over the years. Such encroachers also include government employees who cannot do so as such an act may pose a threat to their job security.

There's no earthly reason why the APDCL should give power connections to families encroaching upon Forest land when the standing rules don't allow such encroachers to avail any of the government facilities. Equally strange is the Forest department's repeated failure to evict encroachers from forest lands.

A top bureaucrat at Dispur said, "Eviction from forest land needs political will and a clear-cut policy to be successful. Eviction drives face a hue and fry. Many issues, including that of human rights, crop up from nowhere. Bitter experiences in the recent past include the eviction drives in Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary and at Botahguli in the Panjabari area in the city. Both the eviction drives had to be stopped.

"The Forest department is also at fault. It should evict a family as and when it starts erecting a dwelling structure on Forest land. However, for reasons best known to it only the Department lets houses to spring up on forest lands. When the department goes to evict such families they become a strong force to reckon with."

A Forest official said, "Freeing forest lands from encroachers is our responsibility, but we need unstinted support from the district administration to get the job well accomplished. We need forces, a magistrate and machineries for eviction drives. All these have to come from district administrations."

Talking to The Sentinel, APDCL MD Rakesh Agarwal said, "Giving power connections to forest encroachers is against our rules. However, no such illegal power connection has come to my notice. If there's any instruction regarding power connection to encroachers residing on Forest land from the government, we'll disconnect such connections immediately. We'll take up the issue that has been raised."

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