TURA: Former ANVC (B) militant and chairman of the A’chik Matgrik Kotok, Bernard N Marak has blamed the Congress party for the problem of influx in Garo Hills and accused it of capturing the GHADC politically and introducing the Assam schedule in Sixth Schedule areas to allow transfer and settlement of lands to non-tribals against the Land Transfer Act.
According to Marak, implementing the much demanded Inner Line Permit (ILP) will not be of much use in Garo Hills due to the nature of the problem.
“The land which was reserved for the Garos through the sacrifices of Garo warriors now belongs to the non-tribals. Garos fought against the British to safeguard their indigenous lands which were later protected under the Sixth Schedule. It was the Congress who introduced the Assam schedule in the Sixth Schedule areas and allowed land transfer and settlement to non-tribals,” Marak claimed in a statement.
Pointing out that the plain belt areas, currently, even have two non-tribal MDCs representing the non-scheduled areas of Garo Hills in the GHADC, Marak claimed that state government never bothered to protect the indigenous lands of the Garos but instead sold them out to non-tribals through the GHADC.
“The introduction of plain and general ‘mauzas’ (revenue collection unit) in the districts of Garo Hills which runs without ‘mauzadars’ (revenue collectors) even today is evidence how the land protected under the Sixth Schedule were manipulated to facilitate the non-tribals. Two reserve constituencies under GHADC (Batabari and Shyamnagar) were declared open constituencies to accommodate non-tribal representatives,” Marak alleged.
Marak said that the illegal functioning of the municipality in all the district headquarters of Garo Hills barring Ampati was another factor how non-scheduled areas exist in A’king lands against article 243 ZC of the Constitution. Therefore, in order to protect the indigenous people’s right and safeguard the Sixth Schedule areas of Garo Hills from the impact of the recently-passed Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Marak suggested that all non-hill provisions be immediately abolished from Garo Hills.
“All municipal areas should be remanded to the traditional heads. Government should stop interfering in A’king lands. GHADC should stop issuing ‘pattas’ under Assam schedule. If these are not regulated by the political leaders, the repercussions are solely to be blamed on their failure,” Marak cautioned.
According to Marak, ILP is a mechanism to check influx and inflow of the illegal migrants which will be implemented only to exclude the entire non-scheduled areas of Garo Hills from CAA and protect the illegal migrants, who have already taken shelter in the plains of Garo Hills. This, he said would gravely affect the bonafide citizens of those areas.
“ILP might benefit the Khasis and others but not Garos. Our lands are already sold out to illegal migrants. We should see CAA as a solution to indigenous people’s plight, insecurity and fear. Unlike Khasi Hills, the problem in Garo Hills is the other way round,” Marak said.
