Assam: The Situation Should Not Have Escalated
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-09-26 05:22:41
About the Author
What happened in Assam during the eviction drive carried out by the administration in Sipajhar in Darrang district to free government land of illegal encroachment by Bengali Muslim settlers should not have happened. The excesses smacked of an intention to 'teach' the settlers a lesson, which should not be the work of any administration anywhere in the world. The BJP government in Assam has not built trust with the minority community. It has always raised the issue of illegal settlers occupying government land and freeing the same was part of its manifesto in the last elections. There is no doubt that huge tracts of government land in Assam are occupied illegally. But the solution to this problem must be sought in a humane manner and not in the way it was done.
To be fair to the government, it must also be said that another huge adjacent tract was freed just a day before without any incident. It was when the land where the incident happened was being freed that the administration faced resistance. It was reported that the settlers were armed with sticks, stones and assorted 'weapons' and started to attack the police and administrative officials. But exemplary restraint in such situations followed by negotiations should be the standard operating procedure. That was sadly not on display. The forces got provoked and committed uncalled for excesses. In the process, two persons died and scores of policemen were injured. One of the dead was a 12-year-old boy. A photographer attached to the forces jumped repeatedly on the other person who died after he fell down on being hit with a bullet.
Perhaps a national policy on eviction of encroachers and their resettlement, along with the standard operating procedure to be followed during the process, is called for. If the government can rightly think of monetizing under-utilized assets, it must also think of utilizing land that has been grabbed by illegal encroachers, but after providing for their resettlement. A model national policy, which the states can then suitably amend as per local requirements (as land is a state subject) is needed.
