tinsukia: Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia moved NHRC alleging violation of basic human rights

Guwahati: Congress leader in Assam, Debabrata Saikia has moved National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) alleging injustice out to many members of ST and OBC communities in the Tinsukia and Nagaon districts of Assam by the state Government, by way of violation of their land rights and basic human rights.

He has pointed to NHRC, “The first instance involves around 1,300 ST and OBC families which were settled in the Laika-Dadhia area of the Dibru-Saikhowa Wildlife Sanctuary in Tinsukia district after the earthquake of 1950. The Government is now seeking to evict them, thereby going back on successive assurances over the last three years or so. Consequently, the affected people have been staging a protest since the last week of December, 2020 at a make-shift site near the DC’s office, Tinsukia.”

He added that three protesters, including have died because they were unaware to bear the chill of winter in the make-shift camp. Many others protesters are suffering from fever, nose-bleed etc. This type of harassment and illegal deprivation of the fundamental land rights of simple folks in both cases is a violation of basic human rights. Moreover, such acts are definitely in violation of various provisions of Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

He added, “ I request you to take suo motu cognizance of the matter and issue notices to the Government of Assam and the district administrations of Tinsukia and Nagaon to show cause for the injustice and initiate urgent steps to ensure that the ST and OBC victims are not deprived of their land and livelihood in such an illegal manner”.

Assam government has constituted a committee which is asked to submit a report on this issue within one month.