Congress alleges displacement of 55,000 indigenous people for corporate gains

Dibrugarh, July 30: Allegations are mounting against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the State over the mass eviction of indigenous communities from protected tribal lands, with activists and local leaders accusing the administration of dis-placing thousands to benefit corporate interests.

Senior Congress leader and veteran trade unionist Raju Sahu has said that more than 55,000 individuals from indigenous communities-including the Boro, Karbi, Mising, Deuri, Adivasi, Rabha, Garo and others-have been evicted from lands they claim as ancestral and protected under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

Out of the total 55,000 bighas of land affected, nearly 48,000 bighas reportedly fall within the Tribal belt and Schedule zone meant to safeguard tribal land rights. Sahu questioned the government's claim that the evictions targeted "illegal Bangladeshi settlers," stating that only around 6,000 bighas were occupied by people belonging to the minority community, according to local sources.

He alleged that the land vacated by indigenous communities has been handed over to large corporate entities such as Adani Group, Ambani's Reliance, and Ramdev's Patanjali. A controversial example includes the allocation of 1,200 bighas in Balipara (Sonitpur district) to Patanjali, reportedly taken from land traditionally held by tribal or tea communities.

Further raising tensions, Sahu cited the 2017 eviction in Amchang, where approximately 1000 members of the Mising, Boro, and Karbi tribes were removed. The incident led to public protests during which Mintu Deuri, a local youth from the Tiwa community, died in the AIIMS movement.

"These are not isolated incidents. There is a systematic campaign to displace indigenous communities under the guise of development and national security," said Sahu.

In addition, Sahu highlighted the government's alleged violation of the Assam Accord and the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), claiming these policies undermine the state's demographic balance and constitutional protections.

Controversy also sur-rounds land rights in the Laika-Dadhia region of the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park in Tinsukia, where displaced families from tribal communities continue to await resettlement, while large swathes of land are reportedly being granted to industrial interests.