Guwahati, May 22: Increased encroachment on government land and wetlands has prompted Dispur to set up village-level committees to act as "guardians" of land resources, protect waterbodies and tackle disasters.
Sources in the state revenue and disaster management department told The Telegraph here today that a meeting held on Monday gave all deputy commissioners and sub-divisional officers (civil) a July 30 deadline to form the village land management and conservation committee.
"Each committee will be headed by a gaon panchayat ward member or any other person selected by the villagers as chairperson and other members. The committee will act as a guardian of land resources in the respective village, including the grazing reserves, wetlands, vegetative covers (forest and agro-forestry on government land), hills and ecological sites, archaeological remains or sites. They will keep a watch on the land resources in the village and mobilise public opinion against any unauthorised encroachment or any harmful activity. They will also inform and lodge a complaint with their respective circle officer against any such activities," said the source.
The committee members will include the ward members of the panchayats, 10 villagers elected in a panchayat meeting, lat mandal (revenue official), village-level extension worker of the agriculture department, field-level staff of the forest department, head teachers of government elementary and secondary schools in the village.
The gaon burha (village headman) will act as member secretary. According to the 2011 census, Assam has 26,395 villages. The committees will also assist in the preparation of village land banks (record of all government land in the village), village knowledge banks (record of the critical land and natural resources) and a masterplan to tackle both natural and human-made disasters. They will also assist in carrying out awareness programmes on the importance of protection of critical natural resources such as trees, waterbodies, rivers and drainage.
"Once the committees are set up, the circle officer will make sure that de-reservation of grazing land or any other reserved category land, requiring diversion for any other purpose is not finalised without placing it in the village land management and conservation committee. The circle officer will take prompt action to remove encroachment on government land on receiving report from the committee," said the source.
The committee shall be involved in the mapping and management of wetlands, hills, ecological sites and the threats posed to them.
"The village land bank, village knowledge bank and village-level masterplan to tackle disasters will be digitised and put up on the knowledge-management portal to be prepared by Assam State Disaster Management Authority. The district heads of forest, agriculture, veterinary and animal husbandry, public health engineering, irrigation, soil conservation and water resource department shall be involved in the constitution of the village committees, training and monitoring their functioning," the source said.
The village-level committees shall be reconstituted every three years.
