Adhocism in anti-encroachment drive

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's directive to the deputy commissioners to map all encroached government land in the state puts the spotlight on the failure of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department in discharging its primary responsibilities of preserving and protecting such land. Lack of consistencies in policies of successive governments in respect of land issue of the state also compounded the problem over the decades. Identification of alternative land for rehabilitation of landless genuine Indian citizens forming part of this exercise will be critical to achievement of the objective in eviction of encroachers of government land once the mapping is completed. Encroachment of government land is identified as one of the five reasons, and not the only reason, included in Assam Land Policy 2019 for scarcity of agricultural land for rural landless peasantry and land for residential and industrial of commercial purposes in rural and urban areas. The other four reasons being loss of homestead and agricultural land due to erosion and siltation during flood, rapid urbanization and industrialization, distress selling of roadside land and degradation of agricultural land. The policy envisages that the deputy commissioners shall regularly obtain detail report on encroachment over government land including reserved land and land acquired under various land ceiling acts and take appropriate and effective steps to "evict those encroachers who are not eligible to get settlement of land in accordance with the land policy of the Government." The rehabilitation of the poor, landless families who were displaced due to erosion of their homestead and agricultural land and were compelled to settle on government land should precede any eviction operation. As genuine landless families evicted from government land are not rehabilitated the cleared land are re-encroached by a section while some others move to a new location in search of vacant government land for settlement. The department also does not have the manpower to prevent fresh encroachment on government land cleared after eviction. The Sonowal government moved the 15th Finance Commission on huge loss of land due to erosion and requested the commission for granting adequate compensatory measures towards relief and rehabilitation of erosion-hit people and consider erosion as a natural calamity. The commission also recognised erosion as a natural calamity and recommended for adequate compensation under State Disaster Risk Management Fund. Assam government's official estimate shows that the state has been losing on an average 8000 hectares of land every year since 1950 due to erosion. The cumulative loss is put at 7000 sq. km till 2019. Density of population in the plain districts is 496 per sq. km against national density of 382 which explains the severity of the problem of erosion-induced displacement. However, as no land surveys and settlement have been carried out in most areas of the state for over six-and-a-half decades, a large number of the erosion-hit landless families who have encroached upon government land fail to produce any land document to substantiate genuineness of their claims on rehabilitation. The solution to the problem lies in expediting land surveys in the entire state and issuing land certificates to genuine citizens. Assam Land Policy 2019 states that in the matter of allotment of government land for ordinary cultivation preference will be given to indigenous land owner cultivators rendered landless due to erosion, flood and other natural calamities, indigenous landless cultivators belonging to Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, backward communities, indigenous widow or indigenous single woman. However, this policy provision suffers from ambiguity as the term indigenous has not been yet been defined and may result in arbitrary decisions on land allotment adding to the complexities of land rights. Complexities of land rights in Assam is also rooted in complex migration history of the state ever since the colonial period and pre-partition days. Defining the indigenous population, therefore, is of paramount importance before any move is taken by the State government on removal of encroachment from government land after the survey is over. Steps like mapping of encroached land and carrying out eviction do not help in finding a permanent solution to the problem. A comprehensive survey encompassing issues of encroachment of government and reserved land, land rights of the communities, rehabilitation of landless families, conservation of environment and forests, land falling disputed inter-state boundaries will go a long way in finding permanent solutions to land issues in the state. The apprehension over land alienation causing identity crisis is genuine and cannot be ignored. A fire-fighting approach to the problem of land encroachment will only deepen the anxiety and apprehension of encroachment of ancestral and community lands apart from protected and preserved land by the communities growing in numbers as a result of migration and population growth. The Sonowal government will be putting the best foot forward if it can make the department abandon adhocism on land issues.