The Assam Government has decided to allot government land to landless living in the surrounding hills of Guwahati.
This was decided by Assam cabinet recently and revenue Minister Bhabesh Kalita had informed Pratidin Time this morning.
According to the new decision , every "landless family" can claim 1 kath 5 lecha of land for government allotment. This is a decision having far reaching consequences as lakhs of people are living in the hills while citizen of Guwahati city are against the allocation of land as it would cause further damage to the drainage system if the city.
There were several round of agitation and eviction in the hills as it is a very contentious subject and people like Akhil gogoi had literally made career out of the whole thing.
But the government decision came with a dramatic and smart twist and through which it would be impossible to get land allocation in the hills.
The government has decided that 'landless' means the applicant himself and his family must not have any land in any parts of Assam and that has to be authenticated by the Circle officer.
The government will also ask for the NRC ARN no of the applicant through which the family tree of the applicant shall be available very easily and land records of many shall also come out. With digitalization of the land records are near complete, matching family tree with land records will be even more easier.
By this way less than 1 per cent of applicant actually will emerge as landless as almost all the applicant have an ancestral land back home in the villages and they will not get land in the hills.
A government spokesman confirmed that they would rigorously scrutinize the application and only those families genuinely have no land or lost land due to erosion of river Brahmaputra shall be settled in the hills.
"I do not think Assam has lot of land less families. Landless can be called to only those families who have lost land due to erosion of the river Brahamputra. For rest it will be a big no" said a government spokesman.
For others who have been settling in the hills , the threat of eviction would continue. This is a bad news for the people expecting settlement but a happy news for the people living in the non hills areas, as the latter always accuse the former of causing the maximum damage by cutting the hills.
