Guwahati Mati Pattakaran Sangram Samiti activists burn the draft masterplan on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

May 25: The Guwahati Mati Pattakaran Sangram Samiti, a pressure group, today announced a series of agitation programmes against the draft masterplan for the city and demanded allotment of land to the landless.

Its president Pranab Goswami told the media that the plan had been “designed to drive away the landless living in Guwahati for years”.

He said according to the new plan, by 2025 over 5,000 hectares would be required in Guwahati metropolitan area for development of urban infrastructure.

“After scrutinising it, we found that the only 27.24 per cent of total land will be used for residential purpose. The rest will be used for various development schemes. For environment 22.49 per cent of land has been earmarked.

“All these prove our apprehension that the government, in the name of development will drive away the landless people from the city, right. For a fast growing city like Guwahati, the plan should have set aside at least 40 per cent of land for residential purpose,” Goswami said.

Alleging lack of transparency, Goswami said government plan to evict the landless is a cruel step. “There are about 50,000 landless families in the city,” he claimed.

“The government has a policy of allotting permanent patta land to the landless living in the city over 10 years. During a recent meeting, revenue minister Bhumidhar Barman said many landless people would receive permanent patta land. But Guwahati development minister (GDD) Himanta Biswa Sarma will not let it happen as he wants to help land sharks construct highrises on plots where the landless people have been staying for years,” Goswami alleged.

On May 29, they will meet chief minister Tarun Gogoi, Barman and secretary to GDD A.K. Bhutani and submit a memorandum demanding cancellation of the masterplan.

The next day they will stage a dharna in front of Raj Bhavan and Janata Bhawan against the draft masterplan.

Refuting the allegations, an Assam government official said the break-up in the plan had been chalked out considering the growth of the city in the future.

He said the move had been necessitated because of wanton destruction of forestland in recent years. “Dispur wants major areas to be included for afforestation under the new masterplan,” he said.

The city is set for a makeover after Centre has earmarked Rs 89.99 crore for the implementation of various schemes under the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy 2007 during the current financial year.