Over 20,000 bighas of govt land under TEs' encroachment

GUWAHATI, February 25: The tea estates in the State are illegally occupying altogether 20,267 bigha, 2 katha and 8 lechas of Government land and the State Government has been initiating a legal process to free plots of land from the encroachment of the tea estates, said Revenue Minister Zoii Nath Sarma on the floor of the State Assembly recently. Sarma was replying to a unstarred question put by MLA Kalyan Kumar Gogoi. Gogoi in his question wanted to know as to what size of Government land was under the encroachment of State's tea estates, he also requested for the break-up showing the amount of land under each of the encroaching tea estates. Gogoi also wanted to know from the Revenue Minister what steps have so far been taken to recover the Government land under encroachment. It may be recalled here that for nearly a decade now media reports have been alleging encroachment of vast areas of Government land by the tea estates in the State. Media reports also alleged a leniency on the part of the administration in encouraging the tea estates' encroachment on Government land. There were also reports of the honest officers, who tried to free the Government land from the encroaching tea estates, inviting the wrath of those who matter in the corridors of power. Against such a backdrop the statement coming in the form of an answer from the State Revenue Minister provides a good bearing to the media reports. The Revenue Minister also appended a list to his answer. The list has named 58 tea estates in Tinsukia District, 18 tea estates in Jorhat district, six tea estates in Lakhimpur District, 16 tea estates in Darrang District, three tea estates in Dhubri District, 16 tea estates in Sivasagar District, two tea estates in Dhemaji District, three tea estates in Karimganj District, six tea estates in Hailakandi District, 16 tea estates in Cachar District, 30 tea estates in Dibrugarh District, one tea estate in each of Morigaon and Bongaigaon Districts, two tea estates in Kamrup District, 39 tea estates in Sonitpur District, 16 tea estates in Golaghat District, 10 tea estates in Nagaon District and four tea estates in Kokrajhar District, as encroachers on Government land. The Revenue Minister claimed that in all there are 247 tea estates (in 18 districts) which are found to be encroaching upon State Government land.