Who owns the encroached land near Dibrugarh’s old embankment?

A Correspondent

DIBRUGARH: Illegal encroachment on government land has been a long-pending issue, and for the past several years, government land has been encroached upon near the Brahmaputra River in Dibrugarh.

The government land was encroached upon in Maijan by people who have built houses and have been living there for many years. But despite knowing everything, the district administration is not doing anything.

While reporting from ground zero, this correspondent of The Sentinel found that most of the land in the Pathartuli area in Maijan under Hilodhori Gaon Panchayat was encroached upon by people who later sold portions of the land. First they grabbed the land and built a house, and after taking a lump sum amount, they allowed others to settle there.

Mausam Karmakar, a 35-year-old daily wage earner, said since 2009 they have been living in Pathartuli and the land was encroached upon by his father.

"We don't have any land document. Our father came and lived here, and now we are here because of him. If the government told us to vacate our land, then we would go from here. But to date, nobody has come to us for vacating the land. Some years ago I built a shop on the embankment; government officials came and told me to dismantle the shop," said Mausam Karmakar.

Mausam Karmakar is not the exception; like him, many people have encroached on government land and set up shops and houses on the land.

Interestingly, Mausam has taken a lump sum amount from others and told them to squat on the particular land he was occupying. Five houses were illegally set up on the land.

But the question remains whether the government has intervened in the matter or taken steps to evict it from the illegal encroachment.

In the course of an investigation, it has been found that people purchased the land from Mausam using Aadhar cards.

Talking to The Sentinel, Indeswar Saikia, Gaon Bura (village headman) of Hilodhari Gaon panchayat, said, "Many houses have been built on government land. This process started many years ago, and particularly the whole stretch of Maijan near the Brahmaputra riverfront area was encroached upon by people."

"Flood and erosion have displaced many people, and they have occupied the government land and are living there. Mostly the people have come here from Charkholia sapori (sandbar). During the monsoon, the water level of the Brahmaputra River rises, and they have shifted to the Maijan area," said Saikia.

Sources said that 200 illegal houses had come up in the whole stretch near the old embankment.

The state government enacted the Assam Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2010. Section 3 of this Act states that 'land grabbing in any form is unlawful, and any act connected with or arising out of land grabbing shall be a cognisable offence'. The government is carrying out eviction drives, especially in urban areas, under this act.

No doubt the state government has carried out eviction drives across the state and freed the land which was encroached upon by illegal settlers.

Dibrugarh city is facing a threat due to erosion, and the district administration has taken up an eviction drive to clear the land grabbed by the people.

A large area near the Brahmaputra riverfront which was illegally occupied by the people was recently evicted by the Dibrugarh district administration.

"We have no records of such land belonging to us. Earlier the place was used as a stake where large boulders which were brought from Rajasthan to build the Dibrugarh dyke. But now the land doesn't belong to us. The land may belong to the Maijan tea estate," said an official of the Water Resources Department in Dibrugarh.

But the moot question is, to whom does the land belong?

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