State Government To Issue Pattas, Mulls Relaxation of Rules

GUWAHATI: The State Government is considering relaxation in the existing land related rules and notifications for granting pattas to landless indigenous people earning their livelihood in the State’s capital city. The relaxation in the norms would apply to all indigenous people living on government land but without patta and have been working for their livelihood for at least the past 15 to 20 years in and around Guwahati city.

Official sources in the Revenue and Disaster Management Department said the present land related rules maintain that pattas can be allotted only to those who do not possess any plot of land (either in their names or even as paternal property) in any place within the State. The Revenue department has observed that many indigenous people are living in Guwahati by occupying vacant government land. But such occupants of government plots in Guwahati have, however, already possessed land at their ancestral places or villages. Since the present land rules will deprive such indigenous people from getting land in Greater Guwahati areas, the Sonowal government has contemplated to bring relaxation norms to allot land to the ‘sons of the soil’ in the city too. The relaxation norms have been incorporated in the new draft land policy for the State prepared by the Revenue and Disaster Management department.

The new draft land policy is being prepared out on the basis of the recommendations of Hari Shankar Brahma Committee for Protection of Land Rights for Indigenous People, the 1989 land policy and the other existing land laws and rules. The HS Brahma Committee was constituted after the Sarbananda Sonowal government assumed office in 2016. Brahma was the former Chief Election Commissioner of India.

Once the draft land policy is ready, it would be forwarded to the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal for his approval. Following Sonowal’s assent, the draft land policy will be sent for views to various departments like Agriculture, Forest, Guwahati Development Department, Urban Development, Soil Conservation and others concerned departments. Finally, the draft policy would be sent to the State Cabinet for its final seal of approval.

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