STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: People from the tribal communities of the state are facing a technical hurdle while applying for land settlement under the state government's Mission Basundhara 2.0, which was launched on November 14 last.
Under Mission Basundhara 2.0, the government has decided to grant settlement of land up to 50 bighas that are in possession of tribal people, which provision was absent in the first edition of Mission Basundhara. The government had recently amended the Assam Land Policy, 2019 in order to include the upper ceiling of 50 bighas.
The applications under Mission Basundhara 2.0 have to be made online via the state government web portal www.rtps.assam.gov.in along with some supporting documents, which include ST (Scheduled Tribe) certificates.
However, tribal applicants are being unable to upload the hard copies of their respective ST certificates on the web portal.
Talking to The Sentinel, secretary-general of the All Assam Tribal Sangha (AATS) Aditya Khakhlari said, "After the launch of Mission Basundhara 2.0, it has come to our notice that tribal applicants are not being able to upload their ST certificates on the relevant portal because these are in hard copy format. The government had recently set up another web portal for providing ST and SC (Scheduled Caste) certificate under Mission Bhumiputra. The www.rtps.assam.gov.in is now seeking reference to applications under Mission Bhumiputra in order to accept applications under Mission Basundhara 2.0, but only a handful of ST and SC certificates have been issued by the Mission Bhumiputra portal. On the other hand, most of the applicants under Mission Basundhara 2.0 are indigenous ST people who obtained their certificates in hard copy format 10-20-30 years ago."
Khakhlari said that this is a major hurdle and they will meet Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in this connection soon and request him to take remedial action.
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