Empowering youth to cultivate land, not encroach it: CM Sarma
Additionally, districts are directed to check encroached forest lands in Assam
Guwahati, Aug 1: The Assam government seeks to inspire local people, particularly the youth, to carry out agriculture and dairy farming activities on free and unoccupied government land through the formation of cooperative committees.
The announcement was made by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during a press briefing at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Dispur on Friday.
“The cooperative committees will be responsible for carrying out agricultural and dairy farming activities on unoccupied government lands. We want to encourage the youth to take up these ventures. The land can be rented from the government at a nominal rate of Re 1 or Rs 2,” the Chief Minister said.
Sarma emphasized that this initiative is intended to prevent further encroachment of government land across the state.
He added that the issue will be further discussed on August 29, during Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Guwahati. Shah will be in Guwahati to inaugurate the newly constructed Raj Bhawan, felicitate newly elected NDA panchayat members, and attend the birth centenary celebration of Golap Borbora, Assam’s first non-Congress Chief Minister.
“Amit Shah is also the Minister of Cooperatives and during the felicitation of the newly elected NDA panchayat members, we seek to encourage the youth to cultivate vacant government lands. This will act as a way to prevent people from encroaching lands,” the Chief Minister added.
Sarma highlighted that there must be no free lands in the state.
“Just this morning, we had to conduct an eviction drive during the early hours at Orang as illegal encroachers were trying to occupy the land there. If land is free, people will encroach,” the Chief Minister added.
The Chief Minister further directed district administrations to check for encroachments in forest areas. However, he clarified that people eligible under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, particularly tribal communities settled before 2005, would not be evicted.
“We will evict those not covered under the FRA. Tribal people with rightful claims will be protected,” Sarma added.
Notably, on July 28 under the Forest Land Rights Act, 2006, the Biswanath district administration formally handed over land title certificates to 2,145 claimants living on forest land in the district.
In his inaugural address, Ashok Singhal had said that this is a noble initiative of the State government to protect the forest dwellers of Assam and uphold their social and cultural rights under the FRA.