Dispur lacks eviction strategy: PBM

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, March 13: Members of the Prabrajan Virodhi Mancha (PBM), in association with the people of Lower and Central Assam who have been facing the wrath of Bangladeshi immigrants, staged a strike at Dighalipukhuripar in the city today. The agitation has the support of the Assam Engineering College Students’ Union.

In a statement issued to the press today, PBM convener Upamanya Hazarika said: “The political party that shouts the slogan of Jaati, Maati and Bheti has no strategy for the latest ‘Battle of Saraighat’.  The BJP came to power in Assam by projecting the last Assembly election in the State as the last ‘battle of Saraighat’. However, their ‘battle of Saraighat’ is still to be started. The onslaught from Bangladeshi invasion to Assam is a practical problem in the State. The State Government started eviction drives at various places just for me sake. It has stopped all eviction drives in the State. The assurance given by the government to free 77,420 bigha of government land from encroachment in Sipajhar is still to be met. Such assurances to free government lands at Palasbari, Borduwa, Mayong, Kawoimari in Barpeta, etc., are still to be translated into reality.”

Hazarika said: “The first engineering institute in the Northeast, Assam Engineering College (AEC) located at Jalukbari in the city is also a victim of encroachment by people of suspected tiolities. According to the amendment done by the then Jalukbari Mouzadar in 1960 AEC should’ve 1,146 bigha and 10 lessas of land. We want the encroached land of the college should be freed and the area should be fenced so as not to let fresh encroachment. The unfenced campus let miscreants enter the college compound. In order to ensure their security, the students of the college took part in today’s protest, leaving Holi aside.”

Hazarika further said that the root cause of Bangladeshi infiltration into Assam is its alluring land. “If the infiltrators are stripped of land rights, infiltration from Bangladesh will cease to exist on its own. The Assam Legislative Assembly should ect such a law that can ensure land rights and the right to obtain licenses for business and contract, and right to get government jobs in Assam are reserved only for those residents of Assam who were citizens of India in 1951 and their progenies. We’re going to launch a mass sigture campaign to make that happen soon,” he said.