Assam Government's move to shield land rights of vulnerable communities

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The Assam Government is mulling a different safeguard for a few more backward communities of the State who are on the verge of losing their rights over the lands they have been living in and owning for generations.

Apart from tribal belts and blocks, the State has a few other communities with their lands notified as protected areas. Such lands, according to the land laws, are not transferable to any other communities. However, of late, it has come to the notice of the State Revenue and Disaster Management Department that there are more backward and vulnerable communities outside the bracket of protection in the State. Such communities are losing their rights over land to other communities, especially to the advanced ones.

The department, according to sources, has already got the preliminary nod for such a move from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). The CMO has asked the department to prepare a detailed proposal towards the protection of lands of such vulnerable communities.

According to sources, the CMO has told the department that such a crucial matter calls for a high-power committee for taking care of such vulnerable communities needing protection of their land rights. If everything goes as planned, more areas being inhabited by such communities will be notified as protected areas. However, the move is at its conceptual stage which, if taken forward with the right earnestness, may take shape by next year.

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