Stop eviction drives conducted sans due process, CLP urges guv

Guwahati: Assam's Congress Legislature Party (CLP) members on Saturday met governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya at the Raj Bhawan here and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention to halt the ongoing and proposed eviction drives allegedly affecting indigenous, tribal, and erosion-displaced communities.

In their memorandum, the opposition members said "The incidents of eviction transgresse the provisions of the Forest Rights Act 2006, the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA 1996), Chapter X (Protect Land Rights in Tribal Belts/Blocks) of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886, Assam (Temporarily Settled Tenancy Areas) Act 1971 and landmark decisions by the Supreme Court."

The CLP delegation also demanded that an independent commission of inquiry be constituted for probe into all evictions conducted since 2022, with a special focus on Sixth Schedule districts and tribal belt and block protections.

"Direct the Govt of Assam to publish a comprehensive land rights regularisation policy, clearly distinguishing long-settled indigenous occupants from speculative encroachers," they said in the memorandum, added that legal and humane rehabilitation measures must be ensured in line with constitutional morality and India's obligations under the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

"The people of Assam — especially its tribals, erosion-displaced citizens, and indigenous communities — look to your office as the constitutional conscience of the state. These eviction drives, conducted without due process or consent in the name of "development", threaten to dispossess the very people whose land rights the Constitution seeks to uphold," the memorandum read.

They also submitted a "People's Charter for Humane and Lawful Eviction Policy in Assam" which "outlines urgent reforms that uphold constitutional values, protect marginalised communities, and promote accountability".

The charter includes establishment of a state-wide eviction protocol, mandatory rehabilitation and resettlement framework, suspension of all evictions without due process, setting up of a legal aid and grievance redress platform and creation of a multi-stakeholder eviction review board.