By Munize Ali, TwoCircles.net,
TCN Special Series on riot relief camps in Assam: Part- 4
Chirang, Assam: Several people belonging to the Santhal or the Adivasi community were also displaced in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon area in 1998. Some of these inmates belonging to Adivasi community are lodged at Veterinary Complex relief camp near Bengtal in Chirang district.
‘We were targeted in 1996. Our original village is on the other side of the river Aai. Part 1, Aai Dhubri is our original village. We still have land there. I pay tax for my land but I have no possession. People in this camp are from Patabari, Ouguri, Part 1, 2, 3 Aai Dhubri etc. I know who took my land. I did census duty and I worked there in my own village. It is very sad for me to see that my land is occupied by someone else. We cannot go back. I had 72 bighas of land’, shared Bhaiya Soren, an inmate of the camp.
Newly built houses of the inmates of Veterinary Complex relief camp
Inmates informed that they were displaced on November 19, 1996. They said that the first ethnic clash took place in May, 1996 though they could live in the village till November. But in November situation compelled them to move.
Since then the inmates were lodged in the relief camp. In February 2011, the inmates bought small plot of land in Bengtal area and shifted there. Land cost them rupees 65 thousand per bigha. Some could buy land for Rs 25 thousand or 34 thousand depending on the area of the land.
‘Initially we were 97 families in this camp. There was a survey in 1998 about the inmates in this camp and those who are in this list of 1998, they got compensation of rupees 50 thousand. Now there are 156 families. The increased families didn’t get compensation,’ informed the inmates.
Inmates are now busy in shifting their bases in a nearby area of Bengtal and trying to build a new life with the pittance of compensation they received.