GUWAHATI, May 6 – Unbridled illegal transfer of land ownership to non-tribals over a vast area under the South Kamrup (Guwahati) tribal belt in the past few years has posed a grave threat to the very existence of the belt itself. Over 200 bighas of land falling under tribal belt at the Dimoria block alone are now owned by non-tribals, thanks to these unlawful dealings.
Revealing this, the Brihattar Dimoria Bhumi Hastantar Nirikshan Samiti, a body of several powerful tribal organisations, today said a sinister nexus among the land officials, mandals and middlemen was working overtime in granting land ownership to unscrupulous non-tribals through fraudulent means in return for monetary considerations. It also demanded an immediate stop to the buying of land by non-tribals besides rescinding the ownership rights of all those who have already acquired land.
The Samiti also produced a list of over 35 non-tribal persons who have bought land “illegally” either in their own name or in their relatives’ name in the Dimoria tribal belt. It has the names of quite a few prominent businessmen and Government officials from the city.
“Taking advantage of the poverty and illiteracy of the tribals, this nexus has succeeded in granting land ownership to a number of non-tribals, and all this is being carried out in blatant violation of the Assam Land Act 1886,” Samiti spokesman Bhakta Ram Bodo and president Padum Ingty told newsmen. The value of the land sold varies between Rs 7 lakh to Rs 10 lakh a bigha. Bodo said innumerable representations have been made before the authorities concerned – from the Circle Officer to the Deputy Commissioner to the Chief Secretary — but without any avail. Disheartened by the administration’s apathy, the Samiti has chalked out a series of agitational programmes beginning with a procession to the Sonapur Circle Office on May 10. It will be followed by a dharna before the Kamrup Deputy Commissioner on May 18 and then a 12-hour Dimoria bandh on May 26.
Terming the illegal land transaction as a sinister ploy of the State Government, the bureaucracy dominated by caste Hindus, and the capitalists to get their hands on the land of the poor and backward tribals, the Samiti said the entire tribal population, who are the original owners of the State’s land, would be rendered homeless unless the trend was checked. Barkhat, Karsia, Tepesia, Kamarkuchi, Digaru, Tetelia, Kshetri, etc., are the areas where illegal land transactions are mostly taking place, Bodo said the modus operandi of the buyers either by furnishing false permanent resident certificates within the belt showing themselves to be relatives of permanent citizens, or by seeking land ownership in the name of trust, hospitals, schools and false firms.
The Samiti called upon the authorities to immediately clear the land of the “cement factory of Purbanchal Cement Factory at Sorutari, the teak garden at Kamarkuchi Tepesia by Ahmed Hussain, a Government officer, the brick kiln at Chamata Pathar by Dipu Choudhury, the proposed coal factory at Patarkuchi, and all the dhabas including the Down Town Food Court, which fall on tribal agricultural land.” It further urged the Government to grant permanent land patta to the tribals doing horticulture on Government land for the past 25/30 years.