The Jokai Bon Koiborta Gaon, a village of upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district, is now 70 years old but the villagers here continue to be deprived of Myadi land pattas.
On Wednesday, the villagers submitted a memorandum to Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal for allotment of Myadi land pattas against their lands.
“After massive earthquake in 1950, the people of Khowang were given shelter to occupy the forest area namely Jokai Bon Koibortta Gaon, covering 9 ghoria, 10 ghoria, 26 ghoria and 27 ghoria for our livelihood,” said Madhab Krishna Das, a villager of Jokai Bon Koibortta Gaon.
“Since then, we have been living in this village but we are still deprived of Myadi pattas. We are indigenous people of Assam but we have no Miyadi pattas,” Das added.
He added, “Earlier, we were 72 families but now over 200 families are living in this village without Myadi pattas. We appeal to the government to allot us with Myadi land pattas because we are facing many problems.”
Most of the people living in Jokai village are associated with agriculture and fishing.
However, Das said they provided several documents to the district administration to allot their village as Myadi patta land but their pleas have been rejected.
“The district administration told them that it is not a revenue village. We are paying tax, electricity bill but still our village is deprived of Myadi pattas. We cannot apply for bank loans because our land is not a Myadi patta land,” said Das.
“We are deprived of government schemes due to the reason. We get certain help from the government because we are farmers but deprived of other schemes,” Das added.
The Assam government recently provided land pattas to 55,661 indigenous people of the state.
A total of 45,141 land pattas were provided till March.