Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: As much as 15,288 bighas of xatra land have been under encroachment in 29 districts of the state.
This has come to light in the final report of the Xatra Commission headed by MLA Pradip Hazarika. The highest area of 7,137 bighas of xatra land encroachment took place in the Barpeta district, popularly called Xatra Nagari. Barpeta is followed by Bajali, Kamrup, Nagaon, Bongaigaon, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Dibrugarh and Dhubri.
After the publication of this report, the ASM (Assam Satra Mohasabha) demanded the government conduct eviction drives to make xatra lands encroachment-free.
Significantly, the lands of Rampur Satra located near Batadrava Satra, the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva, have gone under encroachment. Of late, a school named Azan Peer Sohabi Moktab has been established on xatra land there. Reacting to this, Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Rampur Satra, an illegal structure of Azan Peer Sohabi Moktab, has been built inside the Rampur Satra to deliberately target our culture and hurt the feelings of the people.”
In a recent development, encroachers of xatra lands filed a case against the Lakhimpur district administration to prevent it from evicting them. The case is going on. The Chief Minister said, “Xatras, the pride of Assam, have been under a big threat. We’re committed to protecting our dignity and culture. We will take continuous measures to make every xatra of the state free from encroachment. We need cooperation from the people of the state to make this happen.”
According to sources, the encroachment of over 15,000 bighas of xatra lands in the state has not taken place overnight. Such encroachment took place over the years, and the situation has come to such a pass now as the successive governments in the state opted not to intervene. Encroachers from a particular community took advantage of the mismanagement of their lands by the xatra management committees that kept their lands either abandoned or fallow.
The state has 922 xatras, and some of them have only their names. This precarious condition of the xatras has led the state government to implement the recommendations of a satra commission for the revival of the ailing xatras. The state government is now going to set up a full-fledged xatra commission with administrative and judicial power. The proposed commission will look into the revival process of the xatras.
Also Read: Assam: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma urges Xatras to become Self-Sustaining
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