TURA: The Garo Students’ Union (GSU) from Dadenggre has expressed strong opposition to the resolution allegedly taken by the GHADC on July 2 to grant one time settlement to the people residing in B-Mahal areas and urged the Executive Committee to review its decision.
In a statement issued here on Friday, the union said that huge influx has been taking place unchecked in the plain belt regions of Garo Hills with many illegal and non-indigenous people from outside enrolling themselves to avail voting rights and the move to grant settlement would only benefit the outsiders and not the genuine residents.
“These illegal immigrants will be included in the one-time settlement process. The process of listing of genuine residents will be only for namesake as two non tribal MDC are also being included in the committee as members. Those MDCs will surely leave no stone unturned to get illegal settlers or illegal immigrants to be included in the list of granting one time settlement as it will become their vote bank in future,” the union said.
According to the union, the resolution should have been for granting one-time settlement to the tribals and evicting the illegal non-tribal settlers from the B-Mahal area. If permanent eviction was not done, the union said that the other option is to give them temporary settlement on rent or revenue tax to the GHADC with periodical renewal, which in turn would generate revenue and help in paying the pending salaries of the employees.
