Ready to pay through the nose? Lands are up for grabs in city!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 19: Lands are up for grabs in Guwahati? However, Dispur is very choosy in providing land pattas. It, according to allegations, gives land pattas only to the affluent ones, mostly capitalists who can pay through the nose.

The members Bhumi Adhikar Sangram Samittee, Assam (BASSA) staged a sit-in at Dighalipukhuripar today in protest against, what they say, Dispur’s pick-and-choose policy of giving land pattas. The Samittee said that the Congress Government in the State is out to provide land pattas to only the affluent people and capitalists who are ready pay through the nose. This, according to the Samittee, is a plot on the part of the Congress government in Assam to deprive the local poor patta seekers of land. The BASSA warned Dispur that it and other groups of poor land patta seekers would not allow the government to provide land pattas to only the rich people.

In a statement issued to the press today, BASSA president Prabinjyoti Kalita said: “Thousands of families have been seeking land pattas in Guwahati. By now, 22,000 applications seeking land pattas have been with the government. The process of providing land pattas was at an advanced stage based on the Land Policy, 1989 and the Report of the Bhumidhar Barman Committee on Providing Land Pattas submitted to the government on February 21, 2014. However, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi made everything back to square one on December 10, 2015 when he issued an order on providing land pattas. The order has made the procedure of providing land pattas more complex and paved the way for the rich and capitalists to grab the lands by paying through the nose, depriving the indigenous poor people. There’re around 80 groups of people who have been seeking land pattas in Guwahati. They won’t allow Dispur to go ahead with its unholy distribution of land pattas.”

The BASSA submitted a memorandum to the Kamrup(M) Deputy Commissioner in this regard today.