Provide land pattas to tribal people: All Assam Tribal Sangha

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The AATS (All Assam Tribal Sangha) has requested the State government to provide land rights to the tribal people of the state. Uncertainty over land rights continues to haunt a section of these sons of the soil.

Till 2014, a section of the tribal people paid 'touji khajna' for the lands under them. However, from 2015, the State government stopped taking 'touji khajna'. 'Touji khajna' slips did serve the tribal people as their land records to an extent.

Talking to The Sentinel, AATS general secretary Aditya Khakhlari said, "The tribal people are sons of the soil. For over 70-80 years, many tribal people have had lands without any land pattas. For decades, the successive governments in the state laid no stress on the survey of NC (non-cadastral or un-surveyed) villages of these sons of the soil. Thereby, the government continues to deny most of the tribal people of the state their rights over land. It is unfortunate. We raised this issue before successive governments in the past but to no avail. We request the present government at Dispur to resolve all land-related problems of the tribal people."

Khakhlari further said, "Under the Forest Rights Act, the forest dwellers get some rights over forest land. However, the tribal people of Assam get no such rights. We apply for such rights. However, most of our applications gather dust and face rejection at the relevant sub-divisional committees. Our applications hardly reach the relevant district-level committees."

On the modus operandi of the CCTOA (Coordination Committee of the Tribal Organizations of Assam), Khakhlari said, "We have constituted four committees. The committees are taking stock of the problems afflicting the tribal populace in the state. We expect to submit our findings to the government by March."

Meanwhile, the State Government formed a committee recently to recommend the government ways to resolve the problems of the tribal people of the state. The committee has WPT&BC (Welfare of Plain Tribes and Backwards Classes) Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu as the chairman and Welfare of Bodoland Minister UG Brahma as the co-chairman. It has the senior-most secretaries of the WPT&BC, HAD (Hill Areas Development Department), R&DM (Revenue and Disaster Management) department, Home and Political Department and Environment and Forest Department as members, besides six members from the CCTOA. The member-secretary of the committee is the Commissioner-Secretary of the WPT&BC Department.

The State Government constituted the committee following approval from Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

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