OUR CORRESPONDENT
KOKRAJHAR: Indigenous Bhumiputra People’s Party (IBPP) on Wednesday blamed the Government of Assam and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) for the Karbi Anglong incident in which two persons lost their lives.
Talking to The Sentinel, the president of the IBPP, Dr Phukan Chandra Boro, said that both the State Government and KAAC had miserably failed to protect the land of the indigenous tribal people of Karbi Anglong’s Sixth Schedule administration. He said that Karbi Anglong was created in 1976 under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and that the lands of indigenous communities should have been protected but instead, most of the lands were illegally occupied and settled on by non-tribal outsiders, especially Bengali-Muslims and people from Bihar. He also said that the KAAC administration had also failed to take any measures to protect their lands despite the Gauhati High Court’s order to evict non-tribal illegal encroachers in tribal lands. He further said that the government’s failure to protect tribal lands was the prime cause of the inferno in Karbi.
Boro said that massive encroachments by non-tribals were taking place not only in Karbi Anglong but also in BTR, where over 3.5 lakh bighas of tribal belts and blocks had been encroached. The Government of Assam and BTC had also failed to protect the tribal lands in BTR despite the Gauhati High Court’s directives to evict illegal encroachers in tribal belts and blocks, he said, adding that the day was not far when BTR would also witness a Karbi Anglong type situation. He also said that the Government of Assam should carry out similar eviction drives against non-tribal illegal encroachers in both Karbi Anglong and BTR like it had been doing in various parts of the state. He further said that there would not have been any problem if the State Government had taken action against illegal encroachers in tribal lands according to Assam Land and Revenue Regulation Act, 1886, amended in 1947.
The IBPP president said, “The population of indigenous Karbis sharply declined to 35 percent in Karbi Anglong due to massive encroachment and the population of non-tribal outsiders increasing abnormally. The same thing is happening in BTR which raises an alarm bell.” He also said that the Government of Assam must act with a holistic approach to check illegal encroachers and invasion through population explosion.
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