Deaths during Gorukhuti Eviction unfortunate: Upamanyu Hazarika
Guwahati: Convenor of the Prabajan Virodhi Manch (PVM), Upamanyu Hazarika has claimed that the death of two persons during the eviction operation at Gorukhuti in Darrang is very unfortunate.
He claimed that this should not have happened and should not happen in future as well if adequate “measures are taken in advance by the police”. The entire incident and the subsequent events have very squarely demonstrated that there’s no alternative to protective legislation for the indigenous people of Assam, on which detailed recommendations have been given by the Committee constituted under Clause 6 of the Assam Accord by the Central Government. The committee has recommended reservation of land, employment, trade licences on a 1951 NRC basis. In fact, in 2015 I had given the very same proposal in my reports as a Supreme Court-appointed commission.
He added, “Had such protective legislation been in place, then Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma could not have granted 6 bighas (1.5 acres) of land for those who had been evicted. There are two aspects in this Gorukhuti situation that warrant the necessity for protective legislation which today is the only measure possible to safeguard the identity of 115 indigenous ethnic communities in Assam, and to save the indigenous from becoming a minority by 2040.”
He added, “Firstly, when eviction operations are undertaken against indigenous people, there is no violence of any sort, in Amchang, and Laika-Dodhia big buildings and structures were destroyed and occupants evicted, yet there was no violence, even though they were not given alternative sites of settlement. In the case of Gorukhuti, the encroachers had already been shown an alternative site for relocation in spite of which they resorted to violence. Violence is the norm of Bangladeshi origin people, they attacked a police station in January 2018 at Dhola in Darrang district close to Gorukhuti, in 2010 the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Barpeta was burned down, which successfully stalled the NRC pilot project and the NRC process which was revived 5 years later at the intervention of the Supreme Court.”
Secondly, those evicted usually encroach lands elsewhere, the much touted Kaziranga encroachment in 2016 has 5 years later shown that the evicted encroachers have yet again encroached further lands in the vicinity, Hazarika added.
He added, “Encroachment is an offence under the Assam Land Grabbing Act, 2010, providing for a maximum punishment of 5 years. Over and above when encroachers attack police personnel undertaking eviction operations, it constitutes yet another offence. In this situation, for the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to announce land allotment of 6 bighas for every evicted family makes this whole process a farce.”
Hazarika further added, “If protective legislation reserving land for indigenous people is in place then those of Bangladeshi origin will be unable to acquire permanent rights over land and when there’s no such prospect, it will be a disincentive to them for encroaching any land. Also, if such a legal regime is in place, then even the Chief Minister, cannot allot land to the encroachers as he will be legally prohibited.”