KOREYA (BONGAIGAON), Nov 3 - North Salmara Subdivision Citizen�s Development Parishad, a public body, has demanded that the government clear the encroached lands of Ashok Paper Mills before the allotment of a part of its land for the Multimodal Logistics Park, the foundation stone of which was laid by union Minister Nitin Gadkari on October 20. Parishad activist Dipak Ray said that for the Ashok Paper Mill, a total of 2,255 bighas of land was acquired, of which over 263 bighas of land was bought from people residing nearby. Of these, 47 people from Koreya hill, 16 from Bhoral Kundi, 42 from Koreya part-1, 30 people from Koreya part-2, four persons from Kabaitary part-5, ten people from Jogighopa and 16 from Bhatipara had donated their patta lands for the paper mill which was established in 1970 at Koreya village near Jogighopa in Bongaigaon district.
�Over 70 bighas of land belonging to the paper mill has been encroached by some doubtful people in the northern and southern side of its campus, so we demand the government to clear those encroached areas and bring them inside the boundary of the mill,� Dipak said. The Parishad�s general secretary Buddhadev Ray displayed the original land map of the paper mill to the media to show the portion of the land encroached outside the wall of the mill.
Parishad�s leaders and the local residents of Koreya alleged that some government officials with the help of local political leaders had excluded a large portion of land of the mill from its boundary wall and sold them unofficially to some doubtful people. So, they sought a probe into this anomaly and strict action against the officials involved.
The local residents of Koreya and the Parishad leaders made it clear to the media that they would never oppose the setting of a logistics park in the paper mill campus, but the only thing they want is the protection of the total land allotted to the paper mill.
�My family had left around 20 bighas of my ancestral patta land for the paper mill. I will never allow my ancestral land to be used by any encroacher. So I want the paper mill authority to include the total land which it had acquired initially,� Jogeswar Ray (50), a farmer and a local resident of Koreya part-1 said.
�Since the paper mill was set to revived under the provisions of the Assam Accord, so one of the signatories of the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) must take strong steps to protect the land of the mill by respecting the sentiments of the people of the seven villages around the mill who had contributed their land to the mill,� Dipak Ray added.
