Senior superintendent of police Apurba Jiban Baruah tries to arrest KMSS general secretary Akhil Gogoi during the demonstration at Last Gate on Monday. Picture by UB Photos

March 19: More than 60 protesters, including leader of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) Akhil Gogoi, were taken into custody by city police today after they blocked a road outside the state secretariat in Dispur in protest against the “delay” in giving land patta to the landless in the city, including those on the hills.

Senior superintendent of police (city) Apurba Jibon Baruah said 63 people, including Gogoi, were taken into custody at Basistha police station as they sat on Dispur Last Gate road around noon as a preventive measure to avoid law and order problems in the city. “They were given permission for a gathering of 100 people but more than 500 people turned up and they tried to block the road. So, they were taken into custody,” Baruah said.

Members of the Kamrup district committee of the KMSS, Brihattar Guwahati Mati Pattan Dabi Samity and members of many welfare committees were also prevented by the police at Bharalumukh, Lokhra, Gorchuk, Noonmati and other places as they tried to take out processions demanding patta for the landless.

As the police stopped the protesters, including Gogoi at Dispur Last Gate outside the state secretariat, they got into a scuffle with the police personnel and were later taken into custody.

The protesters were alleging that the government was delaying the process of giving patta to the landless though Dispur had constituted the Bhumidhar Barman-led committee last year to resolve the issue.

The committee was constituted after a protest rally by KMSS and Brihattar Guwahati Mati Pattan Dabi Samity had turned violent on June 22 last year and three protesters died in police firing. The incident had taken place close to where the protesters were taken into preventive custody today.

The protesters demanded that the government should speed up the process of investigation into the June 22 incident and punish those responsible for killing the three protesters. “We want the Bhumidhar Barman-led committee to speed up the process of giving land patta to the landless. We had lost three of our members in the firing but unfortunately the state government is still not taking the issue seriously,” Akhil Gogoi said.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi said the Bhumidhar Barman-led committee was constituted with the main objective of giving pattas to the landless.

“We will give land but we cannot compromise on the land in our forests and wetlands. But they (Akhil Gogoi) cannot take law into their own hands and create disturbance in the name of leading a public movement,” Gogoi said.