By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, July 31: The people of 37 tribal villages in the Panikhaiti area in the city moved the Chief Minister with a memorandum on Monday seeking his intervention to stop their eviction from their villages.
The 37 villages fall within the eco-sensitive Amchang Reserve, and as such the villagers are a scared lot. They apprehend that the Forest authorities may evict them at any time. The villagers staged a dhar at Dighalipukhuripar in the city on Monday. Talking to newsmen, Chandrapur Anchalik Samiti president Babul Inghi said: “Dispur has to feel the woes of the villagers. It has to reconsider is declaration. We’re the sons of the soil living there from time immemorial. However, as is the problem with tribals everywhere in the State, we too don’t have land patta. We’ve been here for long a time. However, now we are apprehensive of being evicted. The decision to declare the area an eco-sensitive zone was taken by the government without taking us into confidence. This anti-people decision has to be cancelled. We’ve submitted our memorandum to the Chief Minister seeking land patta.”