Assam CM Confirms Land Survey in SAR Areas, Pattas for Eligible Families

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma informed the state Assembly today that the government had already initiated the process for the cadastral survey of lands in sar areas, and the eligible families would get land pattas after the survey.

The Chief Minister said that it is one of the recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Biplab Kumar Sharma's report on the implementation of Clause VI of the Assam Accord. "Only families staying in Assam for three successive generations are eligible to get land pattas," he said.

The Chief Minister appealed to the minority MLAs to persuade minority people to leave forest lands, tribal lands, PGR lands and VGR lands themselves so that the government would not have to dismantle houses with bulldozers. "If there are families eligible for getting land pattas, they can apply for land settlement, and the government will consider their pleas," he said, adding, "Most of the encroachers we have evicted have lands elsewhere in the state. Some political leaders and matabars took them from various districts to encroach upon such lands and used the encroachers as workers in cultivation. We've also found that each of the encroachers occupied 60/70 bighas of land. The question of providing land pattas to such encroachers doesn't arise. We'll certainly provide land pattas to genuine landless."

The Chief Minister said, "We've no problems with those who have been in Assam for three generations. Our problem is with the newcomers. Even now people from Bangladesh enter Assam daily. This suggests that there are some people who ensure safe passage of infiltrators into the state."

The Chief Minister appealed to the minority MLAs to safeguard the indigenous people where they are minorities. "We'll safeguard the minority people where we are the majority. We need to live in harmony. The minority people living in Assam for three generations should acclimatise to the situation in Assam," he said.

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