Abdurrahman Aman

GUWAHATI, NOVEMBER 1— Assam land Policy-2019, which was accepted by the state cabinet, has spread the messages of distrust and confusion among the various stakeholders of the state. The state cabinet gave its approval to the Assam Land Policy-2019 on 21 October 2019 wherein it is said that three bighas of agricultural land will be given to landless indigenous families of the state. Moreover, the landless families will be allotted half a bigha of plot for construction of their houses. The allotted lands cannot be sold for 15 years. The State Government is also going to establish a land bank in every village in Assam shortly. Under the new land policy one-man one-patta system will be introduced in the state. In the new regime, while seeking land patta, both husband and wife will have to apply together. The new land policy has an effective tool that can discourage encroaching. The encroachers who have been evicted out of the lands of roads and drains have to bear the cost of eviction drives. As soon as it is notified, the new policy will replace the Assam Land Policy-1989.

The new land policy has been prepared on the basis of the contentious recommendation of the ‘Committee for Protection of Land of the Indigenous People of Assam’ headed by former Chief Election Commissioner Hari Shankar Brahma. The Brahma Committee was formed on 6 February 2017 by the State Government to address the issues related to land. The committee submitted its 22-page report to the Assam Government on 18 January 2018.

The Brahma Committee recommended Government to protect land rights of the indigenous people. The Committee recommended to undertake eviction drives and reclaim forest land, char land, sattra land, tribal land and government land from encroachers. It also recommended that the transfer of agricultural land should be restricted to the indigenous people only. The controversy on new land policy has been due to the core term ‘indigenous’. Because the new policy has not defined the term ‘indigenous’.

Reacting over the new land policy of the Assam Government, senior AIUDF leader and MLA Rafiqul Islam said, “Government policy of giving 3 bighas of agricultural lands to landless families is definitely appreciable. Landless families should get land. But there are enough reasons to be skeptic on the intention of the Government. It has tagged indigenous word in the new land policy whereas who are indigenous is yet to be defined. Our view is that every landless Indian, who are permanent residents of Assam, has his right to have land. By tagging the term indigenous, the government wants to keep some communities out of the periphery from the benefit of new land policy. If it is the Government’s intention, we would not accept the new land policy. All the landless families whose names have been included in the final NRC must be given allotment of land, AIUDF demanded. Responding to those forces who are pressurizing for eviction of the encroachers, AIUDF leader Islam commented that before eviction drives are carried out, it is the responsibility of the government to make alternative arrangement for rehabilitating the encroachers. He added that lakhs of people of the state being uprooted by the erosion of the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries have been compelled to settle down in various government land, reserve land, forest land and tribal belt. If they are evicted, where will they go? Moreover, there is no word in the new land policy to give allotment to the char dwellers (Inhabitants of river islands) who are living there for generations, he said. As per Government record, the total population of Char areas of Brahmaputra valley is 24,90,097 and about 85 to 90 percent of them are Muslims. The then state Disaster Minister apprised the State Assembly on 2 March 2015 that nearly 37,000 families have lost their dwelling due to erosion only between 2010 and 2015.

Senior Advocate of Gauhati High Court, Nazrul Islam Majharbhuiyan said, “In fact, there is no definition of the term indigenous people as per the provision of any law. Moreover, government of India constituted the committee under the chairmanship of Mr. B K Sharma, retired Justice of Gauhati High Court not to define the term indigenous people as per the term of committee. So any attempt made to define the indigenous people by the said committee shall be beyond the jurisdiction of committee.

In the census report of 1951, there was an attempt made by the then census commission of Assam Mr Baiwalla who said that the indigenous people of Assam shall be those people who speak Assamese language in respect of the Brahmaputra valley or the people of the other tribal languages of the valley and local languages of the Barak valley.  As per the said criteria all such people including so called Moimansingias of Assam shall also be indigenous people.” Reservation of seats in the Parliament and the State Legislature, government jobs and land settlement for so called indigenous people shall be in violation of the constitutional provision and a large number of decisions of the Supreme Court of India, advocate Majharbhuiyan added.

Though giving allotment of land to landless families is a positive step, the people of the state are reluctant in valuing the new land policy because of tagging the term indigenous, the President of the All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU) Rejaul Karim Sarkar told India Tomorrow.  He continued, “let the Government first clarify, who are indigenous people? By indigenous people, if the Government means that the Assamese speaking people and the tribal people are only indigenous people of the state, we will oppose it. Moreover, the term indigenous is also not mentioned in our constitution. All the landless citizens who are permanent residents of the state must be considered eligible for getting allotment of land. Any government policy that discriminates among the citizens on the basis of their castes and languages amounts to violating law.” He also questioned the government for not mentioning any measure to survey Char Lands and to offer land Pattas to Char dwellers in the new land policy of the State. It is noteworthy that the minority organizations in Assam have demanded the government to survey the Char Land and issue Pattas to Char people.

On the issue of eviction drive the AAMSU President said, “Under provision of the law, the Government can evict encroachers from tribal belt, reserve land, forest land and Sattra (Traditional temple of the Assamese People) land. But we demand the Government to make permanent alternative settlement for the encroachers who have been landless and homeless because of erosion of the rivers”. Here the UN Guidelines on development eviction is worth mentioning. It says, States must ensure that protection against forced eviction and the human right to adequate housing and secure tenure are guaranteed without discrimination of any language, religion or belief, birth and other status. It further asserts that all persons, groups and communities have the right to alternative land and housing.

In the meantime, the All Assam Tribal Sangha (AATS) has demanded Government to adopt a policy immediately for clearing all tribal belts and blocks from encroachment. It also demanded to survey all the tribal lands and issue Pattas to the indigenous tribal people. The Secretary of the AATS Aditya Khakhlary said that only these steps could address land right of the indigenous tribal people in Assam. However, he welcomed the new land policy. As per government report, out of 85,80,728 bighas of land in the total 30 tribal blocks and tribal belt in Assam, 4,18,073 bighas have been encroached so far.