GUWAHATI, June 10 ? The Minority Department of the Assam Pradesh Congress (I) Committee (APCC-I) is critical about the procedure followed by the State?s forest department in evicting the encroachers from forest lands. Addressing a press conference here today chairman of the APCC-I Minority Department A F Golam Osmani said that at its meeting on June 8, the Minority Department had decided to move both the Government in the State and at the Centre with the plea that they should submit a plan on the eviction procedure before the Supreme Court in connection with the case leading with the Apex court on matters related to forest affairs.
On the other hand a plan is also afoot to approach some NGOs for joining issues with the petitioners?, on the ongoing eviction operations in forest areas, in the apex court, he said. For, he said, even if there was a court directive to evict the ?alleged encroachers?, the authorities could not go for evicting such people without serving notices on them giving sufficient time to them to move to some other places safely. Even the apex court had made an observation some time back, in a Maharashtra case that notices should be served on the people targetted for eviction, and, in cases of extreme hardship rehabilitation of such people should be done, he claimed. But, when asked for the number of the case that he was referring and the identity of the parties involved in the case, Sri Osmani, a Bar-At-Law himself, said that the information was not readily available with him.
Moreover, he said there were also disputes over the nature of the land ? i.e. revenue or forest, in places like Goalpara town. While the occupants of such lands claim that they are occupying government khas land, the forest authorities have been claiming such plots of land to be theirs. Besides cases are also there of inclusion of khas lands which were not parts of traditional forestry, in forest areas recently. People have been living in such areas for about 20 years. This has caused problems for many people living in the char areas, Sri Osmani said. Sri Osmani while stating that there could be no second opinion in matters of preserving the forests, maintained, however, that the price of negligence by some people should not made to be paid by the common people. There should be a clear-cut policy of the Government in matters of eviction, specially for the below poverty line (BPL) people. After all, it is a human problem, he said adding, with the ongoing eviction drives a new class of people ? i.e. evicted people is being created.
He also demanded steps to amend the country?s Constitution to safeguard the interest of the non-Bodo people in the case of carving out the Bodoand Territorial Council (BTC) under the sixth schedule of the Constitution and told the newsmen that the Chief Minister had recently agreed to consider the issue of providing safeguard to the non-Bodos living in the proposed BTC area.