HT Bureau
DIPHU, July 3: The Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) on Sunday clarified its position on the eviction carried out on land allotted to District Judicial Court at Baliram Terang village, 5th mile, Lumding Road. 35 families who illegally settled on the land were evicted on Saturday by the Land & Revenue Department of KAAC.
In a press conference held at the CEM Bungalow here on Sunday, the Member of Autonomous Council (MAC), Amarsing Tisso said it is neither the CEM nor KAAC who is involved in the eviction drive, it was a high court order that was carried out.
Tisso said, “Earlier the judiciary was with the executive at the DC office. In 2012-13 for the good of the people of Karbi Anglong the judiciary was separated from the executive. The Court had approached KAAC for allotment of land for construction of the court complex. There was a 25 bigha land at 5th mile Baliram Terang village, Lumding Road, allotted to Central Silk Board, that land was re-allotted to District Judicial Court by KAAC in 2013.”
Tisso said the court could not immediately take up construction as the land mafias tried to encroach the land. In 2014, eviction was done to free the land of encroachers. Despite the eviction, some of the families stayed back.
“In sympathy with the people, the CEM pleaded with the High Court to stop further eviction. In the last term I was Executive Member (EM), Land & Revenue. The CEM directed me to ascertain the number of encroachers and accordingly a survey was conducted and it was found that 35 families have encroached the land. The CEM also asked us to ascertain how many families were really landless. We found 11 families were genuinely landless. The KAAC had arranged a 1 katha 10 lessa plot to each of these 11 landless families at Horen Terang village. The CEM also directed to provide tin roofing sheets and Rs 1 lakh for construction of their houses.”
Despite the help provided by the CEM, these 11 families did vacate the land. The high court on June 16 issued an order to conduct an eviction drive to free the land of encroachers, Tisso said.
“No one is above the law. You cannot dictate the law, but the law will dictate us. Whether the encroachers are Karbis, Boros, Muslims or Hindus it does not matter, as it is an allotted land and eviction will be to be carried out,” Tisso said.
