By Munize Ali, TwoCircles.net,
TCN Special Series on riot relief camps in Assam – Part 5
Bongaigaon, Assam: There are 45 Bodo families living in this camp. In the neighborhood there are two more camps comprising members of the community. The North Runikhata camp has eight families and Hirimba camp has 83 families as inmates. They were displaced during ethnic clashes between Bodos and Adivasi in the 1990s.
‘We are here for a long time. We submitted all the papers to the government but outcome is frustrating. We don’t have permanent residence. We lived in Dorgaon camp for a year. Then we were shifted here’, said an inmate of the Bhurpaar Balabari camp in Bongaigaon district of Assam.
Nogen Gayari in front of his camp
Nogen Gayari, the village headman said, ‘Initially we were 93 families and were displaced in 1998. We got Rs 10 thousand as interim compensation and rupees three thousand was deducted from this amount as we were supplied tin sheets worth the amount.’
Asked how his community got displaced, Gayari said, ‘First clash between Bodos and Adivasi community started in 1996. We were in Kusumdisha. It followed the 1998 conflict. We were displaced in 1996 also when we lived in Kokrajhar camp and then went back home. But in 1998 we have to leave home and we couldn’t go back till today’.
Gayari remembers the day when clash started in the market where he was to get daily essential stuff for the family. ‘Conflict started in day time. I was in Shantipur bazaar. As I finished my marketing and was about to go back home. I found that clash started between Bodos and Adivasis. My family was at home. I saw many people being killed or wounded. I think about 4-5 persons were killed that day. Somehow I managed to go back home and took my family and left home to reach a relief camp. We survived on rice and dal for many months. We got Rs 10 thousand as compensation in 2001 and then our ration stopped in April in the same year.’ Nogen Goyari said.
Government officials asked the inmates to look for suitable places and settle. ‘We bought this land for rupees ten thousand and are living here. We don’t have enough land to do farming. Since 2006 we are demanding relief and we were told that there is no money for relief’, said Bokul Basumatary, another inmate of the camp.
Bokul lamented, ‘We cannot go back. Our original lands are occupied by other people and hence we can’t go there anymore. Our houses were in reserve lands and the occupiers said that they will not vacate the land. Moreover we are here for a long time and hence we don’t want to go anywhere else’.
None of the Bodo camps took part in the recent agitation for demand of rehabilitation. ‘We didn’t take part in any agitation. We are Bodos. How can we agitate against the Bodos?’ said the inmates of the camp.
(Series concluded)