GUWAHATI : The Assam government was faced with the issue of finding appropriate land for rehabilitating those rendered homeless by natural calamities despite having laws and policies for such allocations, a minister informed the Assembly on Friday.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Keshab Mahanta, while replying to a private member’s resolution in the Assembly seeking rehabilitation of people rendered landless due to natural calamities, said various steps were being taken to address the issue, including survey of ‘char’ (riverine) areas.
The minister said various legal provisions, including ‘The Assam Land and Revenue Regulation of 1886’, are already in place for allotment of plots to landless citizens.
Moreover, different governments have also formulated various policies during their regimes for land allotment and many citizens have been rehabilitated, he added.
Mahanta maintained that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has a sympathetic approach towards allotting land to the landless people, and cited the Assam Land Policy, 2019, which prioritises allocation of plots to those rendered homeless due to natural calamities.
He added that the chief minister has suggested some amendments in the policy and work was underway on those.
The minister said that finding government land for allotment is also an important part of rehabilitation.
He claimed that available government land has been encroached, including some by landless people.
Mahanta said that with the survey of the ‘char’ areas commencing, land allotment can be started in those parts after due processes are completed, and it will help in addressing the issue of rehabilitation to a large extent.
Earlier, speaking during the discussion, Congress MLA Abdur Rahim Ahmed said short- as well as long-term measures are required to address the problem.
He said ‘char’ dwellers are deprived of rehabilitation packages as they do not have land rights, and the departments concerned are hesitant to provide them with ‘erosion-affected’ certificates, which would help them in getting government benefits.
Ahmed also maintained that the need to submit proof of being dwellers of the area for at least the last three generations is also a problem as there is no clarity on which papers will serve as legal proof.
Echoing him, another Congress legislator, Jakir Hussain Sikdar, said that erosion-hit displaced people are often treated as foreigners in other parts of the state when they go to settle in those areas.
“The government should provide these people with erosion-affected certificates and provide rehabilitation,” he said.
Mehboob Muktar of Raijor Dal cited the economic hardships families face when they lose their homes to erosion and said that on top of it, they are branded as ‘foreigners’ and go through social and administrative injustices.
Opposition AIUDF’s Mujibur Rahman and TMC’s Sherman Ali Ahmed, while highlighting the plight of the landless people, also criticised the Congress for not addressing the issue of rehabilitation when it was in power. (Source: PTI)
