SHILLONG:
A.chik Holistic Movement (AHAM) has accused the Assam government of forcefully trying to seize land belonging to Garo people in West Garo Hills border.
In a statement issued by the group on May 22, general secretary of AHAM South Western Zone, Ampati, Wester G Sangma, informed that the Assam government had given orders to evict landowner Indong Ch Sangma and stop construction work despite having a valid land patta.
The group claimed that the landowner had a land patta with full payment receipt till 2023 made to the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council. The incident reportedly took place on May 21 at Chattibui Market under Garobadha Police Station, West Garo Hills.
Members of AHAM went to the spot to get clarification and saw that several Assam police personnel and CRPF had already been deployed by Assam authorities. The group tried to reason with the Assam Police Circle Officer and requested them to produce the documents stating that the land belonged to Assam.
As per AHAM, there was a court case involving ownership of the land between Akash Ali from South Salmara, Mankachar, Assam and Shan Kumar Hajong from Garobadha West Garo Hills.
However, the group maintained that the actual landowner’s name was not mentioned anywhere in the court order and that the son of Shan Kumar Hajong failed to produce any documents or evidence to prove that the land belong to him.
The group suspected a ploy between Ali and Hajong in order to seize the land belonging to Sangma.
An altercation between members of AHAM and the officials of Assam and police personnel ensued when the group tried to the eviction.
AHAM said since it’s an interstate land dispute, officials from both the states should be present to settle the matter but they did not get any response from EM Land & Revenue in-charge Nikman Ch Marak and GHADC officials.
The group said this was not the first time this kind of incident had happened. On January 13, 2022 , the Assam government had also tried to forcefully conduct eviction without proper documents and failed, informed AHAM.
AHAM said it cannot stop such illegal activities on its own since Meghalaya authorities had also refused to cooperate.
It also urged the state government to take note of such incidents at border areas and condemned the neglect of higher state authorities such as public leader of Garo Hills and other officers.