Assam Govt To Relocate Evicted Families If Citizenship Proved: Assam Govt To GHC
While defending his arguments in the affidavit, Sarma further said that it is not related to acquisition of land, it is only related to encroachment and eviction.
Guwahati: The Assam Government has said that the relocation will be provided to the evicted families of Groukuti in Darrang district provided they are valid citizens.
However, the government in an affidavit asserted that they will not be paid any compensation as they are ''encroachers''.
''An area of about 1,000 bighas (about 134 hectares) of land in the southern part of No 1 & No 3 Dhalpur village has been earmarked for relocating the evicted persons subject to verification of the status of erosion affected and landless status in their respective original places and districts, citizenship and existing rehabilitation policy of the state," the affidavit read.
Quoting the rules framed under Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886, Sipajhar Revenue Circle Officer Kamaljeet Sarma, representing the Assam government asserted that the occupants of the area were liable to be evicted at any time as they were encroachers.
While defending his arguments in the affidavit, Sarma further said that it is not related to acquisition of land, it is only related to encroachment and eviction.
''Therefore, the question of resettlement, rehabilitation and compensation etc as per Land Acquisition Act is irrelevant," he added.
The Gauhati High Court had earlier itself registered a suo moto PIL after the violent eviction drive at Sipajhar apart from Saikia's case. Both the matters were clubbed together.
The bench of the Gauhati High Court heard the matter on Wednesday and gave one week's time to the Assam government for filing a detailed counter affidavit and fixed December 14 for the next hearing.
The court also took cognizance of state government's assurance that for current encroachers no coercive measure is being adopted.
"All the same, as and when such measures are adopted, the petitioner would be at liberty to move an application before this Court," the court added.
"You cannot just evict people from their homes on suspicion of being foreigners and later make their rehabilitation contingent on proof of citizenship", PTI quoted Saikia's counsel Talha Abdul Rahman as saying.
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