The fear of land acquisition and possible eviction are haunting the people of some villages in
Karbi Anglong district of Assam. The concern is over a huge Solar Power Project on 18,000 Bighas of land of the hill district.
Today, the issue has been raised in the Rajya Sabha by Assam MP Ajit Kr. Bhuyan during the zero hour. In his speech, MP Bhuyan started with the meaning of ‘Karbi Anglong’, saying - “Karbi Anglong is derived from the Karbi language. Karbi is the name of the indigenous tribe (son of soil) living in and around the region. But now they are being evicted from their own land because a large 1,000-Megawatt Solar Power Project, under the pretext of development.”
Bhuyan accused Assam government to have denied the Sixth Schedule policies. “It is moving forward to build a large 1,000-Megawatt Solar Power Project with the help of Asian Development Bank on about 18,000 bighas of land in Khatkhati-Lankatha, Karbi Anglong”—he said during his speech.
“ The land will be acquired by evicting about 20,000 Karbi, tribal and Naga people who have been living in 23 villages in the large area for 200 years”—Bhuyan remarked.
Furthering the point, he said—“The Government of Assam has already undertaken this preparation and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council has given permission. The acquisition of land in the name of this project will be one of the greatest land acquisitions in the history of Assam. The most unfortunate thing is that the Government of Assam is going to do this without any public opinion, which is quite unjust to the local people.”
“The proposed land has been farming in the area for a long time. This is an important biodiversity area on the Assam-Nagaland border with streams, tributaries, etc. However, the Karbi Anglong permanent council and the Government of Assam have identified the land as unsuitable land for a long time and violated the extreme land policy.”
Ajit Kr. Bhuyan also brought in the cases of land acquisition in other places across Assam, which include tribal land. “There are many illegal land acquisition cases in Assam including BTR, Mikir Bamuni, Kaziranga, Rabha Hasong and other parts of Assam. The government is now planning to do this in the name of Advantage Assam.”—he said.
“It is an extreme regret that the people of Karbi Anglong will lose their livelihood for the benefit of some big merchant. There is no environmental study for this huge project and no process of receiving the National Board of Wildlife. It is also important to see how successful this project will be due to the cloudy environment and rains in Assam.”
“Through this mention, I urge upon the Government through you, the proposed solar power project should be stopped with the livelihood of about 20,000 Karbi, Naga and tribal people”—Bhuyan ended.
On the other hand, Subrat Talukdar, on behalf of Joint Struggle Committee for
Land Rights & Karbi Anglong Solar power Project Affected People’s Rights Committee thanked Ajit Kr. Bhuyan for raising the issue in the parliament.
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