GUWAHATI, Jan 8 - The All Assam Tribal Sangha (AATS) today asked the State Government to protect the land of tribal belts and blocks and implement the provisions of the Assam Land and Revenue (Regulation) Act 1886 properly and evict the illegal settlers.
At a press meet today, the AATS stated that steps should be taken to issue land title to the tribal forest dwellers implementing the Recognition of Forest Right Act, 2006.
Aditya Khakhlari, general secretary of AATS, said the Constitution of India has sanctioned the provisions to shield the tribal people by creating tribal belts and blocks to save tribal people from exploitation. �But the loopholes in the chapter X of the Assam Land and Revenue (Regulation) Act 1886 must be fixed to protect the interests of the tribal people. Still large-scale land encroachment is going on unabated as the Act has totally failed to protect the land in tribal area,� he added.
The central executive committee meeting of the organisation held today asked the State government to restore all the lost tribal territories and return them to the legal owners and evict all illegal land settlers from the tribal belts and blocks.
At the meeting, it was decided to pressurise the State government to take a bold decision for settlement of land to all tribal inhabitants in various forests and reserved forest areas of Assam as per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Right) Act, 2006. The organisation further demanded creation of an autonomous council for Bodo-Kachari people residing outside BTAD under the provision of the Sixth Schedule and a special discussion on long-standing tribal problems in the State Legislative Assembly for at least one day in every session.
