Land patta distributed to indigenous landless in Hailakandi district

A Correspondent

Hailakandi: As part of the Government of Assam’s policy to grant land patta to indigenous landless people, the Hailakandi district administration gave away patta on Wednesday.

In a function organized by the Disaster Management and Revenue Department at Rabindra Bhawan here, altogether 41 land patta viz., 5 under Hailakandi Revenue Circle and 36 under Lala Revenue Circle were distributed to the indigenous landless people of the district. It may be mentioned that 5 landless persons under Hailakandi Revenue Circle were allotted land patta on the Republic Day this year.

Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli said the district administration as part of the present State Government’s policy will continue to grant patta to poor landless indigenous people of the district in the days ahead.

Speaking on the occasion, local MLA, Anwar Hussain Laskar appreciated the move of the State government to safeguard the land rights of the indigenous population of the State.

District BJP president, Subrata Nath, district BJP vice president, Hirok Jyoti Chakraborty, former district BJP president, Khitish Paul and senior officials of the district administration were present on the occasion.

The state-sponsored committee on protection of land rights of indigenous people, headed by former chief election commissioner Hari Sankar Brahma was formed in February 2017 at the direction of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The committee submitted its recommendations on how to protect the land rights of the indigenous people to the government in June.

The committee estimated that 90% of the natives of Assam do not possess permanent land patta (legal document for land ownership), while at least 8 lakh native families are landless.

Sonowal, while deciding to set up the committee, had said the government was taking steps to formulate a new land policy because “without land there can be no existence of the Assamese race and it is the government’s fundamental duty to protect the land of the original dwellers of the State and no compromise would be made in this regard.”

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