No survey of sar areas gives land grabbers an edge

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Apart from government lands, grazing lands, forest lands and lands in tribal blocks and belts, the massive encroachment of sar area lands is going on in the state.

The rehabilitation policy of landless people with government lands covers only a minuscule section of the indigenous population in the state.

According to sources in the Revenue department, a section of influential village land grabbers encroach upon vast areas of sar area lands and give them to others for cultivation in exchange for money. They have grabbed 49,500 bighas in the Barpeta district, 1.2 lakh bighas in Kamrup, 32,200 bighas in Goalpara, 60,600 bighas in Darrang, 1.13 lakh bighas in Morigaon, etc., the sources said.

Since the survey of sars has been long overdue, the State Revenue Department does not have the up-to-date data of sars and their landed areas and population. And the influential land grabbers are taking this advantage.

The Revenue Department observes that the Assamese population has the habit of leaving vast tracts of lands lying between their villages abandoned. They raise a hue and cry when immigrants encroach upon such lands and start cultivation.

Many erosion-affected villages have got vanished in the state. After losing their lands and houses due to erosion, Assamese families have the habit of living in the same district nearby their lost villages. Even now, many erosion-affected Assamese families continue to live on embankments.

However, the immigrants are habitual land grabbers. They keep hopping from one district to another when they lose their homestead and cultivable land in erosion. Such people keep encroach upon lands in other districts when the government evicts them. The same flock of evicted immigrants encroaches upon lands in different districts in the state.

If the State Government does not work out a tangible solution to the problem, the problem will have its offshoots that will complicate the situation further.

Also Read: It's beginning to secure state lands: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

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