DIBRUGARH: Several student organisations on Friday staged a protest against the Assam government’s decision to rehabilitate people from the Laika-Dodhia area to the Paharpur area of the Tinsukia district.
Paharpur area falls under Margherita in Assam’s Tinsukia.
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All Assam Sema Student Union, All Adivasi Student Association of Assam, All Assam Tangsa Student Union, All Assam Sema Naga Council and local residents of Paharpur participated in the protest.
“We have been living in the Paharpur area for several years. We would not let them to settle here. It is our land and we would not give them our land to the people of Laika-Dodhia. The government have not discussed to rehabilitate them in Paharpur. If the government forced us to their rehabilitation, we would intensify our movement,” said a female protester.
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Khekoto Sema, a local resident of Paharpur said, “The Assam government has issued an e-tender notice that Paharpur was declared as Reserve Forest(RF). So how can the government rehabilitate the people of Laika-Dodhia in Paharpur,”.
“The forest department cannot do this it is against the Constitution of our country. We have been living here for many centuries. Our forefathers have done jhum cultivation and tea plantation with and we are giving land revenue to the Assam government,” he said.
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All Adivasi Student Association of Assam(AASAA) Tinsukia district committee general secretary Jarnel Minz said, “It is miserable that Digboi Divisional Forest officer TC Ranjith Ram has been forcefully rehabilitated the people of Laika-Dadhia at Paharpur area. We are against this rehabilitation process,”.
After being displaced by the earthquake of 1950, around 1,480 families belonging to various indigenous communities have been living in these two hamlets. Laika and Dodhia villages were set up by these people much before the notification on the National Park was issued.