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Dhubri, Aug, 31: A lurking fear of revisiting trouble has made a section of relief camp inmates reluctant to return home, choosing instead, the safety of their present address where they have been living for over a month.
“Who will protect us? The army, CRPF and police will remain for a month or two and as soon as they move out from the area, we will have to live under threat again,” said Rezzak Ahmed, 50, whose shops and houses in Patgaon under Serfanguri police station of Kokrajhar district were damaged.
He is currently residing at the camp at Gauripur Adarsha Prathamik Bidylaya.
Ahmed’s concerns are no different from those of A.K. Narzary, a camp inmate in Kokrajhar, who had yesterday spoken of his fear of returning home. “How safe will we be?” he had asked.
The fear among the inmates who had come from Patgaon, Ramphalbil, Basbari, Gossaigaon and Kachugaon of Kokrajhar district was reinforced after the violence at Pakritol near Fakiragram on August 25.
Ahmed, who is educated and associated with a number of organisations, alleged that living in BTAD was humiliating as they were subjected to various injustices. He said they had left behind property worth lakhs of rupees and despite possessing land documents, they would not return at any cost.
Some other inmates of the camp — Bacchu Bepari, 45, Amir Mirdha, 48, Kadir Bepari, 51, and Wahidul Hussain, 32, — from Ramphalbil, Basbari, Gossaigaon and Kachugaon of Kokrajhar district echoed Ahmed and said they would not return despite having all documents to prove their citizenship.
“We want the government to rehabilitate us here with all compensation so that we can live in dignity. But please do not tell us to return to BTAD. We have seen what happened to those who returned at Mongolian Bazar and Pakhritol,” a camp inmate said.
Most inmates dramatically changed their mind about returning home since the August 25 incident.
Talking to The Telegraph, Dhubri additional deputy commissioner Nurul Amin Laskar said land document verification had been begun simultaneously from today in two sub-divisions of the district — Bilasipara and Dhubri. “Nearly 20 teams of officials from the Kokrajhar land and revenue department will visit each and every camp and collect documents from camp inmates from BTAD and later, they will crosscheck these with available land records.”
He said collection of all land-related data had to be completed by September 4, as a meeting had been fixed on September 6 in Kokrajhar for finalising the list and the next phase of action.
The Prithibi Majhi-led 10-member group of ministers discussed the decisions arrived at during the August 29 meeting with the BPF leadership on rehabilitation with senior government officials in Dispur today and then formally apprised chief minister Tarun Gogoi of the developments.
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