Assam: Congress' Debabrata Saikia vows to raise issue of displaced Mikir Bamuni Grant farmers in Assembly

Nagaon: The Leader of the Opposition in Assam, Debabrata Saikia today visited Mikir Bamuni Grant under Samaguri Revenue Circle in Nagaon district today. In this particular area, the Sarbananda Sonowal-led state Government has been accused of snatching away the land rights of many indigenous people, including members of the ST and tea tribes communities, in order to set up a power plant.

Saikia assured the affected people that he would take up the matter with the Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly for remedial action.

"The Government has conspired with a company and given this land away. The local farmers were never consulted and 14 farmers were even sent off to jail. This is most distressing," Saikia told scribes, adding, "This Government has intimidated the locals of this region and the indigenous sons of the soil who have been tilling this land have been deprived."

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It may be mentioned that the Government has evicted the ryots without notifying them, on the basis of a report that said that the land in question is barren. "The fact that one person was killed by a wild elephant in the area in 2018 while trying to protect standing crops proves that the land was under cultivation," Saikia has contended.

Saikia was accompanied by Mr. Ramesh Bordoloi, Chairman of the ST department of the APCC, Mr. Sailen Sonowal, Secretary of APCC, Mr. Pradyut Bhuyan, General Secretary of APCC, among others.

During the visit of the Congress party's delegation, locals brought out banners and held a mini-protest urging the Government to give the land back to them. Slogans were shouted and banners were raised in opposition to the move to evict them from the area to make way for a power plant.

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