Guwahati, Aug. 6: A ban on the sale and purchase of land in troubled Karbi Anglong has pitted the interests of the Karbi tribe against those of communities perceived as “settlers”.

Organisations representing non-Karbis, who constitute 65 per cent of the troubled district’s population, have approached both Dispur and Raj Bhavan to revoke the ban. A public rally will be held in Bokajan on August 11 to mobilise opinion against the ban, clamped by the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council on July 13 but notified only last week.

Karbi Anglong has a history of ethnic conflict with militancy adding to the strain on the tenuous relationship between indigenous tribals and other communities.

The autonomous council has banned the sale, purchase, mortgage, lease, barter and gifting of land from non-tribal to non-tribal and tribal to non-tribal in any nature. No transfer of land will be considered legitimate for the next 12 years and any such arrangement in the past 12 years, recorded or otherwise, stands cancelled.

The non-Karbi population is specifically objecting to the clause which states that if anybody who has been living in the area for 15 years wants to dispose of his/her land, the buyer must be a tribal. The autonomous council will take over the plot of land up for sale on the terms set by the seller and “settle it” in the name of the willing tribal buyer.

The organisations campaigning against the ban include the All Adivasi Students’ Association, All Assam Students’ Union, Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad, All Bengali Youth Students’ Federation, Hindi Bhasi Youth Society, Muslim Kalyan Parishad and the Assam Gorkha Sanmilan.

Depending on the government’s response to their plea to revoke the ban, the organisations could even move court for a re-merger of areas that were carved out of Sivasagar and Nagaon districts to form the erstwhile United Mikir and North Cachar Hills district on November 17, 1951.

The Mikir Hills and North Cachar Hills were separated in 1970. Six years later, the Mikir Hills became Karbi Anglong.

The general secretary of the AASU’s district unit, Madhurjya Dhekial Phukan, said the ban on sale and purchase of land had made non-Karbis insecure about their future in the district.

“Whose interests is the autonomous council trying to protect? Checks should be on outsiders, not on local non-tribals or those who enjoy voting rights. We understand influx is a problem but can this be checked by curtailing our rights?” he asked.