4,673 forest dwellers get land titles
Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: Distributing land pattas to forest dwellers to around 4,600 ST families in 20 reserve forest areas in the Kamrup district today, Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to them to keep an eye on new encroachers of forest land. “The encroachment of forest areas by people of doubtful nationalities in Goalpara and Kamrup districts has reduced ST people to a minority and curbed their political mileage,” the chief minister said.
The Chief Minister distributed ‘forest land-title certificates’ under the ST and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, to 4,673 families belonging to Garo, Rabha, Bodo and Karbi families who have been living in around 20 reserve forests for decades in the East and West Kamrup Forest Divisions, covering areas such as Lokhra, Bandapara, Kulsi, Loharghat, Boko, Singra, etc. The Chief Minister said that the state government had not implemented this act enacted in 2006 until 2024. “The government provided you land pattas. It’s your duty to keep an eye on new encroachers of forest areas; failing which, you will lose your culture, language, and all. Had the previous governments in the state nipped the problem of encroachment in the bud, the situation would not have been so precarious today. The outcome is that lakhs of bighas of land have gone under the occupation of people of doubtful nationalities. Our government has freed 1.45 lakh bighas of land from encroachers. And the eviction drive will not stop. All illegal encroachers and non-eligible settlers occupying government land without valid rights will be evicted,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that to solve the land-related problems of ST people, the government has converted around 600 non-cadastral (NC) villages to cadastral villages. “For this part, the government started the process to allot up to 50 bighas of land to each tribal and indigenous eligible landholder,” he said.
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