Cops and Land-grabbing

A few days ago there was a news in several newspapers and television news channels about the alleged involvement of a very senior former police officer of Assam in an incident of land-grabbing in the heart of Guwahati which also involved the mysterious murder of a person who was apparently the care-taker of a plot of land in question. On Saturday, this newspaper had a front-page news-story in which it has been stated that the police in Assam have been allegedly causing serious violation of various provisions of the Assam Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2010. The news-item has clearly stated that the very purpose or objective of the above-mentioned piece of legislation is not being served as the police in most of the land-grabbing cases have failed to send them to the tribunals. What the police have been allegedly doing is settling such cases at their level itself, in the process not only deviating from the standard course of action set by the said Act, but also leaving a lot of scope for people to smell a rat. It is indeed a matter of concern that the number of land-grabbing incidents has been rising almost astronomically in the state in general and in Guwahati city and Kamrup (Metro) district in particular. According to official statistics, there have been about 800 such cases in Kamrup (Metro) district alone over a period of eight years since the enactment of the Assam Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2010. Of these, nearly fifty per cent cases - around 400 – were disposed off in the police stations itself by grossly violating provisions of the Act that those should be sent to the special tribunal constituted for the purpose. The above figure is only about cases or incidents that have been reported and registered. There must be many more cases in which poor families have been simply removed or chased away from their land after being forced to sign on some documents and deeds in lieu of a paltry sum. According to the Assam Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2010, the police have to register a case against every complaint or report of land-grabbing, and then send the case to the special tribunal established in every district for this purpose. The Act is very clear in that the police have no role whatsoever in carrying out any arbitration, mediation or ‘out-of-court’ settlement in cases of land-grabbing. As has been pointed out, there have been allegations that the police also take the side of land-grabber to reportedly motivate the original owner of the land to ‘come to an amicable agreement’ in lieu of a paltry some of money. Yet another aspect that has been pointed out in the said news-story on Saturday is that the Government of Assam has not responded to a repeated query from the Gauhati High Court about the details on the progress of investigation into the land-grabbing cases. The Gauhai High Court had last year admitted a PIL regarding the status and progress of investigation into the increasing number of cases of land-grabbing in the state.