Student body alleges encroachment in Jorhat's Dissoi forest by Nagaland residents
It sought the govt to take a proactive stand against forest & govt land encroachment & reclaim land along Assam-Nagaland border
Jorhat, July 12: A 45-member delegation of Jorhat district unit of the Asom Jatiyabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) on Thursday undertook a visit to Dissoi Valley Reserve Forest along the Assam-Nagaland border and reportedly saw large areas of forest being destroyed and encroached upon by people from the neighbouring State.
Informing to this newspaper the Jorhat district AJYCP general secretary Biswajit Gayan said that the delegation which comprised State vice-president Siba Kalita, district president Ashim Jyoti Saikia saw huge areas of the forest belonging to Assam encroached by people of the neighbouring State and carrying out rubber cultivation in those areas.
Gayan said that people residing near the inter-State border of Assam side told the delegation that the modus operandi of the encroachers was to first set fire in forest areas and then later occupy the vacant areas.
He said that the students’ body has sought that the present State government, which has been adopting a pro-active policy of carrying out eviction drives in the forest areas and in other categories of government land across Assam to free from encroachments, also should undertake similar action to reclaim encroached land along the Assam-Nagaland border.
“The government has a duty to protect and safeguard State’s land in forest and other areas, and also should provide security and safety to the citizens residing near inter-State border areas,” Gayan stated.
Stating that the students’ body last week had submitted a memorandum with six demands to the Chief Minister, through Jorhat DC office, he said that one of the demands was to establish more BoPs in the Mariani belt of the Assam-Nagaland border, and also deploy commando force at vulnerable areas to prevent encroachment.
The students’ organization cautioned that if the State government did not take any step at the earliest to carry out eviction to free the encroached forest areas and necessary measures to prevent such encroachments then the AJYCP would resort to series of protest programmes.