By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati, May 18: The Coordination Committee for Minority Organisations of Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) has urged upon Assam chief minister to take up several measures towards the uplift of the people who have still been suffering from the trauma of the violence which took place in 2012.
The coordination committee representatives who also submitted a memorandum to the CM requested the state government so that the victims and the survivors get their due justice.
“We appreciate different measures undertaken by the government under your guidance to rehabilitate the displaced and to bring back peaceful law and order situation in BTAD. However, there are still more than 6 thousand families still waiting adequate rehabilitation and compensation. Among these more than 3000 landless Muslims are suffering the worst and they are not rehabilitated till today,” said Mukhlesur Rahman, an advocate who is a representative of the committee.
BTAD has been frequently affected by worst kind armed violence since 1993 and violence in last June-July 2012 killed more than hundred people and left more than 4 lakh were displaced, one of the largest displacement of human being since independence.
These landless Muslims have been residing in government land and forest land for more than 50/60 years now denied any ownership over their land. Hence, they face harassment from various corners for not having lands and losing their hope for survival.
According to media reports on April 24 this year it was decided in a meeting of Group of Ministers and BTAD administration that an amount of Rs.50,000 will be given to these landless Muslims who are living in government land and forest land with a condition that they will submit an affidavit that they will not build home in any government land again.
“As you know, in BTAD landless Muslims are not allowed to purchase land, therefore if they are not provided with government land or special permission to purchase lands in BTAD they will have no other option but leave BTAD and will increase the number of internally displaced population in the country which leads to other consequences in the society and community. Hence, we request and demand that these landless Muslims should be given special permission to purchase land in BTAD or provide them land under Minimum Needs Programme (MNP) alongwith rehabilitation with proper compensation,” he added.
According to figures given by the coordination committee more than 20,000 FIR have been lodged with the police regarding June-July 2012 violence but only 5000 FIR(approx) ot of these have been registered so far. Even in those registered cases investigation is either very slow or no investigation at all. Therefore, they also demand a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for fair and speedy disposal of justice to the survivors.
Besides, they sought the right to education to be guaranteed by the state government. “As you know that numbers of schools were burned down during the violence, these schools should be rebuilt so that students can resume their studies and becomes better decision makers in future and follows the path of peace and non-violence,” said another member of the committee.