New Delhi: Sitting MP from Assam Naba Sarania on Tuesday demanded protection of the non-tribals in the protected tribal belts in Assam.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Sarania said, "The non-tribals who have been living here before March 25, 1971 and have all official paperwork done, should not be forced to evacuate the area. The interests of the non-tribals living for generations in those areas were overlooked when the act was made."
On the contrary to Naba Sarania's demand, a PIL was filed in the Gauhati High Court by Northeast Heritage Foundation that demanded to evict all such "foreign immigrants" encroaching the land belonging to the protected tribal communities as per the Assam Land Revenue and Regulations Act 1947.
The Heritage Foundation has claimed that around 4,50,756 bighas of tribal land falling within the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) have been illegally encroached by outsiders in the past few decades.
The BTAD comprising Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalgui districts of Assam came into existence under Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Accord in 2003. The Accord was signed between the Central government, Assam government and disbanded rebel organisation Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT).
The tribal belts and blocks regulations were implemented in Assam in 1947 to protect the land rights of the aboriginal backward protected tribal communities from immigrants.
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