On Wednesday, the Indigenous Bhumiputra People's Party (IBPP) accused the Assamese government and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) of being responsible for the two fatalities that occurred in Karbi Anglong.
Dr. Phukan Chandra Boro, the head of the IBPP, told The Sentinel that the State Government and KAAC have utterly failed to safeguard the land of the indigenous tribal people of Karbi Anglong's Sixth Schedule administration.
He claimed that although Karbi Anglong was established in 1976 under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, non-tribal outsiders particularly Bengali-Muslims and Biharis illegally occupied and settled on the majority of the indigenous communities lands, which should have been protected.
Additionally, he claimed that despite the Gauhati High Court's order to remove non-tribal illegal encroachers from tribal areas, the KAAC administration had not taken any action to safeguard their territories. He added that the main reason for the fire in Karbi was the government's failure to defend tribal territories.
According to Boro, approximately 3.5 lakh bighas of tribal belts and blocks have been encroached upon by non-tribals in BTR as well as Karbi Anglong.
He stated that despite the Gauhati High Court's orders to drive out unlawful encroachers in tribal belts and blocks, the Government of Assam and BTC had also failed to preserve the tribal lands in BTR, and that the day was not far off when BTR will also see a situation similar to Karbi Anglong.
Additionally, he stated that, as it has done in other areas of the state, the Assamese government ought to conduct comparable eviction campaigns against non-tribal unlawful encroachers in Karbi Anglong and BTR.
He added that if the State Government had enforced the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation Act, 1886, as amended in 1947, against unlawful encroachers on tribal lands, there would have been no issues.
"The population of indigenous Karbis sharply declined to 35 percent in Karbi Anglong due to massive encroachment and the population of non-tribal outsiders increasing abnormally," stated the head of the IBPP.
BTR is experiencing the same issue, which is concerning. Additionally, he stated that in order to prevent illegal encroachment and invasion through population growth, the Assamese government must take a comprehensive approach.
