Illegal activities: Sar areas in police radar

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: A section of sars in Assam has turned into dens of antisocial elements. Criminals get the edge of the remoteness of some sars where it is difficult for the police to frequent.

Some of the sars are known for illegal activities like land encroachment and operations of illegal band sawmills (portable sawmills). Some sars are also the breeding grounds for fundamentalists. To cap it all, now it has come to light that poppy (afing) cultivation seems to be the newest vocation for a section of sar dwellers to mint money. It has come to light at a time when the State government is on a full-scale war against drugs.

In the past few days, Goalpara police have been destroying hundreds of bighas of poppy cultivation in the sars area of Sitalmari, Balikari, etc., under Lakhipur police station. It has come to light that some drug dealers engage the local agents in the sars to cultivate poppy for opium.

Police sources said that they had destroyed opium cultivation in sar areas earlier also. However, those were in smaller areas. The large-scale cultivation of opium has made the police raise their eyebrows.

According to police sources, the sar areas known for their antisocial activities are well under their radar. "The problem lies in the fact that we cannot reach such areas soon after receiving information of illegal activities because of the remoteness of the areas. We have to go with full force. Two or three policemen going to such sars is fraught with the risk of life," a police official said.

A forest official said, "The sars in Goalpara, Kamrup and Barpeta are known dens for running illegal band sawmills. Timber smugglers often fell trees. They transport logs by rivers to the sars for sawing in illegal band sawmills. We have dismantled several illegal sawmills from sar areas last year, besides the seizure of many timbers. However, conducting raids in sars is fraught with the risk of life. The district administration and the police need to take an active role in such operations in sars areas."

A source in the Revenue Department said, "After 2003, there has been no survey of the sars in the state. The number of sars in the state in 2003 was around 2,600. Sars sometimes disappear because of changes in the river course. Change in river course also creates new sars. Some local goons occupy lands in sars areas and sell them to others. It is an illegal activity. The police arrested several goons, but the menace continues unabated."

Information keeps coming to the police that the sars are destinations for some radical leaders who infuse fundamentalism among the sar dwellers and create unrest in the state. Following a request from the State police, the Ministry of External Affairs had to cancel the visa of a Maulavi from Bangladesh in December last. The Maulavi was to deliver a lecture in Barpeta.

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