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Kokrajhar, Sept. 24: Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) leaders today said they were serious about allowing only those riot-affected people having valid documents like land pattas to be rehabilitated, while dispelling fears about any anomaly in the process.
Speaking to reporters here today, BTC deputy chief Kampa Borgoyary said, “No one without proper land pattas would be resettled in BTAD.”
He said the BTC administration had started scrutinising the papers to ascertain the genuineness of the people and their land documents so that nobody could take advantage of the situation.
Nearly 25,000 families were reportedly affected in the recent conflict in Kokrajhar district, of which 18,000 families had filled up the rehabilitation forms in accordance with government norms. Of these, he said, nearly 8,000 families did not have proper land pattas, while another 8,000 families were deemed doubtful citizens and 1,077 had no land in the region.
In Chirang, nearly 10,000 forms were collected, of which 2,641 families had land pattas, while 5,641 did not, he added.
Stating that the BTC administration, in association with the state government departments, had been working on the process, Borgoyary said. “The displaced would be rehabilitated after proper scrutiny of the land documents in accordance with the agreement arrived at during the meeting between the group of ministers of Assam government and the BTC administration.”
BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary had earlier stated that people having land documents would be identified village-wise and then resettled in their respective villages.
Assam revenue minister and group of ministers’ chairman Pritibhi Majhi had on Saturday said the rehabilitation process was taking time because the papers required to identify that genuine Indian citizens were being properly verified.
He said so far around 18,000 families had been identified as having valid land pattas and would be rehabilitated in the first phase in Kokrajhar district after proper verification.
Majhi said the state government alone could not rehabilitate the people without the BTC council verifying the claims, as land was a BTC subject.
Various Bodo and other indigenous community organisations have demanded framing of effective modalities for rehabilitation of the relief camp inmates by the government in consultation with social organisations before making any move towards that end. The scrutiny should be both on paper and in spirit. None should try to take political mileage and rehabilitate illegal migrants present in the relief camps, the organisations said.
The All Bodo Students’ Union (Absu) had even said the groups of ministers and the government would be solely responsible for rehabilitating illegal migrants and any untoward incident threatening national security in the future.
The organisations have demanded that only bonafide Indian citizens should be rehabilitated by making proper scrutiny of the relief inmates on the basis of land documents and by taking 1971 as base year.
They have also asked the government not to rehabilitate non-tribals in the tribal belts and blocks and ensure protection by implementing Chapter X of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation Act, 1886.
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